Do you belong to an aero club?

Perhaps you’re in a flying club, learning to fly for the first time or looking to get back in the cockpit after a long time off. Maybe you’re a member of a model flying club, exercising your ability to cruise the skies with your feet on the ground. Or perhaps you don’t pilot any aircraft, but you belong to one of the thousands of different aero clubs and societies that are operating around the world.

It’s amazing that we have so many opportunities to meet like-minded individuals who share our passion, but have you ever wondered where it all began?

If you do a quick search to find the answer, you will most likely be directed to the largest and oldest still-operating aero clubs of present day: the Aéro Club de France, the Royal Aero Club, and the Aero Club of America. The most commonly told origin of the aero club is that it all began in 1898 with the Aero Club de France.

The stated mission of the club was ‘to encourage aerial locomotion” and it expanded rapidly. It held aerial competitions, established rules and regulations for pilots, published a regular magazine, and served as a place for aviation enthusiasts to connect and explore their passion for flight.

Not to be outdone, aviation fans in the United Kingdom and the United States began organizing their own clubs and found similar success. Today, all three of these major clubs are not only still thriving, but also oversee their own respective networks of smaller clubs.

I suppose this makes sense intuitively. With hundreds, maybe thousands of aviators competing to develop the first heavier-than-air flying machine during this time, it seems only natural this would be the right time for the first aero club to flower.

But something still wasn’t right. For each time I’d dig deeper into one of these three major clubs, I find a link to a different society that preceded it by at least a few years. Before long, I was plummeting down the Wikipedia rabbit hole, determined to find the true first aero club that started it all. After several twists and turns, finally found myself on a sparsely populated Wiki page titled Société Aérostatique et Météorologique de France.

The year was 1852 and while heavier-than-air flight was still a mere fantasy, the magic of aviation was still very alive. The hot air balloon had been invented in 1783, but until now, balloonists were at the mercy of the wind, providing an exhilarating experience, but an impractical form of transportation. However, in 1852, French engineer and inventor Jules Henri Giffard developed the first full size powered and steerable airship. Giffard’s dirigible signaled a new chapter in flight development and with it, a new wave of interest in aviation.

It’s this wave of excitement that sowed the seeds for French balloonist Jean-François Dupuis-Delcourt to found what is the very first aeronautical society on record: the Société Aérostatique et Météorologique de France.

It may have been short lived (surviving only 8 years) but the Société Aérostatique et Météorologique de France was highly active. At one point reaching over 100 members, the Société met four times a year, published a regular bulletin newsletter for its members, and even attempted to conduct experiments involving long-haul balloon travel.

Much like the ever expanding and innovating nature of the aerospace field itself, the Société started a massive proliferation of aero clubs to take root all over the world. Some eventually disbanded but many, like the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain remain to this day, overseeing smaller clubs and continuing to influence newer generations of aviation fans to start their own.

So while Dupuis-Delcourt’s Société Aérostatique et Météorologique de France may be gone, the ethos that fueled its foundation is still alive and well in the worldwide aerospace community. As a result, there are quite literally thousands of aero clubs of all kinds spread throughout the globe.

So if you don’t belong to an aero club, I would encourage you to take a look and see what’s out there. Chances are there is a group of people who are ready to share their love of aviation with you. And if not, you can always channel the spirit of your new favorite 1852 French balloonist, and start your own!

By Max Ouweleen

Marketing Coordinator at Pacmin Studios and The Model Shop

About Pacmin Studios

Pacmin Studios has been serving the aviation and transportation industries with creative physical and digital models and exhibits since 1946. 

Known for producing high quality custom aircraft display models, Pacmin Studios has evolved to provide a suite of additional services, including graphic design, CAD, CGI rendering and animation, livery design, and other transportation marketing solutions.

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Additional Sources

1. https://www.space.com/16595-montgolfiers-first-balloon-flight.html
2. https://www.space.com/16623-first-powered-airship.html
3. http://econterms.net/aero/Soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9_A%C3%A9rostatique_et_M%C3%A9t%C3%A9orologique_de_France

Cover Image: Mike Young at English Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons