Marcel Adolphe Baratoux was born in Paris on July 3rd, 1884,
the son of a professor of engineering who was also a civil engineering
contractor and businessman. He was educated at the prestigious École
Polytechnique and graduated in 1907. He became interested in aviation
and from 1908 made many balloon flights, participating in contests such
as the Gordon Bennett Trophy. He lived in Dunkerque, where he was one
of the founding members of the local Aéro-Club.
He became interested in powered flight and learned to fly a Wright,
making his first flight on August 27th, 1909. He made modifications to
his Wright machine, equipping it with wheels, and participated in the
October 1909 Port-Aviation meeting, where he only made few short
flights. He did better at the March 1910 Cannes meeting, where he was
in the air for a total of almost one hour, but didn't win any of
the contest prizes. He apparently stopped flying aeroplanes soon
afterwards, perhaps as a consequence of the French Wright operation
fading away. He still continued flying balloons though, and also
qualified for a French balloonist license in 1910.
There's not a lot of information about his post-aviation life, but
he was married twice and apparently launched into a business career. He
was granted a patent for sail-boat rigging in 1930, in the beginning of
1950s the he was recorded as president of the trading company
Orosdi-Back and in 1955 he wrote a book about legislation concerning
commercial companies. He served in both World Wars, being finally
discharged in July 1941 as "chef d'escadron de train". He
received the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d'Honneur. He passed
away on October 2nd, 1976.
Baratoux was granted French "Brevet de Pilote" No. 49 on
April 10th, 1910.
Marcel Baratoux participated in the following air race
meetings: