Armand Dufaux

Who was Armand Dufaux?

Armand Dufaux was a Swiss aviation pioneer who became famous for flying the length of Lake Geneva in 1910.

He and his brother, Henri Dufaux were natives of Geneva. Their first design was a model helicopter weighing 17 kg, this was followed by a large eight-wing plane that was unable to fly, then a third design that crashed on its first flight.

The Dufaux 4 was their first successful craft. On 28 August 1910, Armand flew it from St. Gingolph to Geneva, taking just 56 minutes and 5 seconds, and winning the Perrot-Duval prize of 5,000 Swiss francs for the feat.

Later in 1910, the brothers established an aircraft business, and in 1911, sold their "Dufaux 5" to an 18-year-old Ernest Failloubaz, whose reconnaissance flights were the beginning of Swiss military aviation.

The Dufaux 4 is today on display at the Swiss Transport Museum. In 1997, Armand Dufaux was honored on a Swiss postage stamp, as one of four pioneers of Swiss aviation.