Flies Under Victory Arch -- August 7, 2019

New York Tribune, 31-August-1919

100 years ago today, on 07-August-1919, French pilot Charles Godefroy flew a Nieuport fighter under the Arc de Triomphe. Aviators were angry that were ordered to march in rather than fly over the Victory Parade on Bastille Day. Jean Navarre was planning to buzz the parade and fly through the Arc de Triomphe, but he was killed a few days before the parade:
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2019/07/jean-navarre-falls-to-death-close-to.html

After Charles Godefroy flew through the Arc, he received a warning from the police and his family made him promise to stop flying.

This article is from the 12-August-1919 Greeneville Daily Sun.

Flies Under

Victory Arch

PARIS, Aug. 12. -- Lieut. Godefroy, a French aviator, yesterday performed the feat of passing under the Arc de Triomphe in an airplane flight.

The airman had been training several months in preparation for the feat. His practice work was done at Villacoublay, where a frame of an arch the same dimensions as the Arc de Triomphe had been erected for the purpose.

Godefroy flew a machine with a wing spread of 8 yards, which left him a margin of about 7 yards to get through the arch. He cleared the opening cleanly, gliding through with his motor stopped. After clearing the arch he flew over the Champs Elysee.

Jean Navarre, one of the most daring of French flyers, had planned to fly under the Arc de Triomphe in a monoplane in connection with the victory celebration, but the police considered it would be dangerous to spectators. Four days before the parade, however, Navarre was killed at Villacoublay.

Jean Navarre Falls to Death Close to Paris -- July 10, 2019

Corpus Christi Caller, 11-July-1919

100 years ago today, on 10-July-1919, pioneering French ace Jean Navarre, who had survived four years of flying during the war, died in a crash as he rehearsed his plan to defy orders, buzz the Victory Parade on Bastille Day and  fly under the Arc de Triomphe. The story after the newspaper article explains some of his "eccentric escapades."  

JEAN NAVARRE

FALLS TO DEATH

CLOSE TO PARIS

Airplane Crashes to Ground

in Attempt to Avoid

Collision in Air

By the Associated Press.
PARIS, July 10 -- Sub-Lieutenant Jean Navarre who was one of the first aces among the French aviators during the war and who was withdrawn from the service because of his eccentric escapades, fell while flying in the vicinity of Versailles this afternoon and died soon after in a military hospital.

He was to land at the airdrome at Villacoublay, when, in trying to avoid a collision with other machines, his airplane crashed.

Navarre was officially credited with bringing down 12 enemy airplanes, although the Paris newspapers, during the latter part of his service in the French aviation corps, credited him with the destruction of 19 enemy machines.

He was awarded several decorations by the French government for his exploits in action against enemy aviators. In April 1917, after his retirement from the service, he was arrested and placed in a military prison charged with having run down several policemen of Paris with his automobile. After his release, it was reported that he intended to go to the United States as an instructor in aviation.

Flying, November, 1917