On June 30 and July 1, 2012, Avord air base 702, Captain Georges Madon (*), will celebrate its 100th anniversary during a grandiose meeting.

1912, on this same plain, just bristling with a few hangars, housing Blériot piloting. Two years later, the First World War broke out. In 1918, the school had 1,000 planes, 6,000 staff, provided 6,000 hours of flight each month, and had issued more than 9,000 pilots' certificates, making it the largest aviation school in the world.

The centenary saw the passing of the most renowned pilots, experienced many avatars, almost disappearing on several occasions, only to be reborn ever stronger from these tribulations. Today, the base hosts the four AWACS of the Air Force, a national ground-air center, and continues its original mission of training military transport pilots. She recently participated in operations Harmattan over Libya.

With its greatness and its misfortunes, its anecdotes, the men and units who shaped it, its feats of arms, it is the entire adventure of a community that this work relates, over pages where the History breathes life into this singular epic, retraced thanks to extensive work collecting archives, photos and testimonies.

SECOND HAND

JEAN PIERRE PILLE / CHRISTIAN LECESNE