Created in 2004 by Marie-Vincente Latécoère, the aircraft manufacturer's daughter-in-law, the Latécoère Foundation is a Swiss foundation recognised as being in the public interest. Since 2021, it has been directed by Pierre-Elzéar Latécoère, the only great-grandson of Pierre-Georges Latécoère and an engineer like him.
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The Latécoère Foundation aims to maintain and promote the memory of aeronautics and its pioneers. By passing on the values of Pierre-Georges Latécoère, it also works to inspire new generations to take up the challenges of the future, including the transition to low-carbon aviation.
Latécoère Archives
The Foundation conserves and manages the Latécoère archives intending to perpetuating them.
Some of these archives relate to Latécoère aircraft: models, plans, manuals, photos and travel logs. Latécoère is one of the few aircraft manufacturers with complete archives dating back to the 1920s. The drawings on which it is possible to see the pencil strokes are a magnificent aesthetic testimony to the techniques of the time.
The archives also contain historical documents revealing the significant stages in the creation and management of Lignes Aériennes Latécoère: contracts and personal correspondence from PG Latécoère, as well as the commercial relations that existed between the Latécoère industrial aviation company and l'Aéropostale. The fact that everything is on a physical medium in the absence of computers has enabled these precious documents to still be with us today.
Lastly, personal effects belonging to PG Latécoère have also been preserved, such as the globe on which he designed his air routes and copies of "Courrier Sud" and "Night Flight" autographed by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
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The Latécoère archives are made available to historians, writers, museographers, artists, graphic designers, or anyone who needs them to give substance to their projects. In this way, books are written, exhibitions are created, and works of art are produced.
To make them accessible to as many people as possible, the Foundation has had a large part of the Latécoère archives digitised. As a result, the most critical archival items can be shared easily with interested parties wherever they may be located.
Project Support
The Latécoère Foundation supports numerous cultural, educational, humanitarian and innovation projects:
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MUSEUMS that keep alive the memory of aeronautics and its pioneers. L'Envol des Pionniers, on the historic site of Montaudran (Toulouse), tells the magnificent story of the men of Latécoère Airlines and Aéropostale. The hydroplane museum at Biscarrosse, on the Latécoère hydrobase, tells the story of the Latécoère seaplanes and exhibits models, aircraft parts and personal effects that belonged to PG Latécoère.
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RECONSTRUCTIONS OF THE LATÉCOÈRE 28 as it was originally built. A flying version, equipped with an original engine, is being constructed by the Cercle des Machines Volantes (Compiègne). A static version is being built at the Envol des Pionniers (Toulouse), on the site where it was originally built. The latter is an educational project involving more than a dozen vocational high schools in Toulouse, Spain and Morocco to produce the wooden and metal parts and the communications.
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HISTORICAL AND SOLIDARITY AIR RALLIES, such as the Raid Latécoère-Aéropostale and the Toulouse – Saint-Louis Rally. These fly in the historic footsteps of the pioneers of aeronautics and carry out solidarity and cultural actions at the various stopovers of Latécoère Airlines and Aéropostale. These actions include transporting medicines, setting up libraries, giving first flights to children and carrying out environmental projects.
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MODELISATION OF THE LATÉCOÈRE 631 in Microsoft Flight Simulator, bringing this aircraft back to life. Thanks to a significant amount of graphic work and historical research into its plans, photos and manuals, the plane is almost identical to what it was in the 1940s: exterior, cockpit, passenger cabin and behaviour. In this simulator, the seaplane can be piloted in a very realistic way, and interactions are possible with each of its buttons, levers and onboard instruments.
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INNOVATIONS, such as the Mermoz challenge, which involves designing and building a hydrogen-powered drone capable of crossing the South Atlantic, following Jean Mermoz's historic route, without emitting any CO2. This is a significant innovation from ISAE-SUPAERO.
Events
The Latécoère Foundation organises recurring and one-off events to strengthen the community of aeronautics enthusiasts, families of pioneers, explorers and players in aeronautical innovation.
Each year, the Latécoère Foundation organises:
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A General Assembly to which all people in contact with the Latécoère Foundation are invited, in addition to members of the Foundation;
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Sales of handicrafts by solidarity associations;
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Meetings of the Latécoère Explorers to discuss their past, present and future projects. This creates cohesion between them and generates new ideas.
From time to time, the Latécoère Foundation organises and supports conferences and visits to museums and historic sites, charity events, inaugurations of locations and unveilings of objects in line with its aims.
The Latécoère Foundation aims to create a link between the past and the future so that the history of the pioneers of aeronautics inspires the aeronautical projects of tomorrow. In this way, it creates a dynamic between its network, the Latécoère Explorers, and the companies that inherited Pierre-Georges Latécoère's values, such as those in the Toulouse Pioneers collective.
Pioneers Pavilion
The Latécoère Foundation aims to act as a link between all those who are involved in or passionate about the history of the pioneers of aeronautics and those who are carrying out projects to bring it to life.
It also intends to preserve and manage the archives of other aeronautical pioneers who took part in this great epic in the same way as the Latécoère archives.
Foundation Board
Marie-Vincente Latécoère | Founder
Pierre-Elzéar Latécoère | President
Cosme de Cosnac | Treasurer
Pascal Chappeland | Vice-president
Patrick Chollet | Vice-president
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Laurent Albaret
Jean-Claude Chazottes
Dominique Cressend-Lejeune
Gersende de Cosnac
Laurence de La Ferrière
Bernadette Desalbres
Marie-Cécile Desalbres
Rémi Desalbres
Raphaël Domjean
Jacques Eyraud
Laetitia Firmenich
Matteo Giorla
Martine Laporte
Sancie Latécoère
Jean-Claude Nivet
Honorary Board
Pierre-Marie Latécoère | President
Benoît Dayer | Vice-president
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Michel Barbié
Sylvie Bergès
Jean-Paul Burgues
Bernard Camman
Jeremy Caussade
Gilles Collaveri
Alexandre Collinot
Frédéric Collinot
Olivier d’Agay
Claude de Massimi
Nicolas Delsalle
Jean-Baptiste Desbois
Gérard Feldzer
Robert Flageat
Jean-Jacques Galy
Catherine Gay
Véronique Hallard
Jean-Didier Hemous-Daurat
Hélène Larrezet
Dauphine Latécoère
Catherine Maunoury
Claude Moreaux
Jean-Luc Moudenc
Shaibata Mrabihrabou (Sadat)
Bertrand Piccard
Yves Pleindoux
James Prunier
Thierry Sentous
Madeleine Tezenas
Marylène Vanier