Yves Le Prieur - Adventures in The Far East

Adventures in The Far East

Le Prieur followed his father in joining the French navy. As an officer he served in Asia and used traditional deep sea diving equipment. He studied Japanese and became sufficiently proficient to be promoted to military attaché and translator at the French Embassy in Tokyo. While there he became the first Frenchman to earn a Black Belt in judo, and the first person to take off in a plane, a glider, from Japanese soil in 1909.

The glider, named Le Prieur No. 2 after an earlier No. 1 unmanned prototype, was 7.2 m long, 7.0 m wide, and weighed 35 kg. The frame was made of Japanese bamboo, which was covered with calico. Le Prieur had designed the glider in collaboration with Shirou Aibara, a Lieutenant of the Japanese Navy, and Aikitsu Tanakadate, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University. The first flight took place in December 1909 just to the East of the University of Tokyo at Shinobazu Pond with Le Prieur sitting on the glider's main wing. The first flight covered 200 m at an altitude of 10 m.