Jean Dabos 1923-2012

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Jean Dabos fled France aged 17 years in 1940 to England via Morocco, West Indies, Brazil, and Canada! He joined the French Alsace Squadron in Flight Strasburg. He finished the war after 220 hours of war flying and 140 missions. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the military medal four citations and the “Legion d’honneur”. After the war he went to the Flight Test Center at Bretigny before joining SNCASO in 1952 as a helicopter test pilot. On 29th December 1953, he set the first French held World Altitude record for a helicopter in the SO.1220 Djinn a single-seater which flew to 4789m. In 1957, he pushed the record higher to 8458m.

He then went to test fly the Vautour and the Espadon at Melun-Villaroche. In 1956, he joined the Test Flight Center of Aerospatiale in Toulouse and followed the certification programmes of Caravelle, Airbus and Concorde. Afterward, he was detailed as “Flight crew training manager” at Aeroformation to train crews of foreign companies. He retired in 1974 with 11500 hours in his log-book.