Émile Dubonnet (18 October 1883 - 4 October 1950) was a French balloonist active from 1908 to 1913. He participated in the 1908, 1909, and 1911 Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning and was a member of the Aéro-Club de France.[1] He won the La Grande Medaille de Aéro-Club de France in 1912. He holds a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale record from 1912-1913.[2][3][4][5]
He was born on 18 October 1883 in Paris to a winemaker. In 1910 he flew over Paris in his Tellier brothers aircraft. He started from the Juvisy-sur-Orge field and made a landing at Bois de Boulogne[6]
He also helped form the first professional baseball league in France, the French Baseball Union, in 1912.
A beautiful, sunny Autumn day, following yesterday's discouraging downpour, made the start in the international balloon race for the Gordon Bennett Cup to-day a great success from every standpoint. More than 200,000 persons watched the seventeen balloons soar skyward and disappear on the horizon.
Emile Dubonnet, the French aviator, flew over Paris In a monoplane to-day. He started from the Juvisy-sur-Orge field and made a landing at Bois de Boulogne