Birthplace of Auguste Maïcon

Information about Maïcon is difficult to come by today, but he was well known in his time.

He held French pilot’s licence number 695. In 1915 he was a contender, competing against Glenn Curtiss and a number of others, for the world’s first transatlantic flight, an effort which was interrupted by WWI. (The feat was eventually accomplished over a period of 23 days from May 8 to May 31, 1919, by a U.S. Navy crew flying a Curtiss NC-4 flying boat which crossed the Atlantic in stages, from the U.S. to Newfoundland, the Azores, Portugal and finally to the U.K.) Among other achievements he was instrumental in establishing an early air passenger service on the French Riviera.

Maïcon also enjoyed notoriety for a particular stunt that he repeated on numerous occasions: that of flying his airplane under a bridge in Nice that spanned the river Var. The space under the bridge was only two meters taller and six meters wider than the airplane itself.

Maïcon died in relative obscurity in 1974. Today, the house where he was born appears to be a private residence.