Jean Boulet

Jean Boulet (16 November 1920, Brunoy – 13 February 2011, Aix-en-Provence) was a French aviator. In 1957 Boulet was awarded the Médaille de l'Aéronautique; in 1983 he became one of the founding members of the French Académie de l'air et de l'espace. He died at the age of 90.

Born on 16 November 1920 in Brunoy, near Paris, Jean Boulet is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique he entered in 1940 and was first hired in 1947 by the SNCASE, which would become Sud Aviation and then later the Division Hélicoptères of the Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale. Having been trained in the USA earlier in his life to become a military pilot with the French Air Force, he was one of the first foreign pilots to fly a helicopter in the United States Air Force. Over the years he would fast become one of the greatest pioneers in the history of rotorcraft flight testing.

Boulet has set several rotorcraft records for distance, altitude and speed.

On 21 June 1972 Boulet set a world record for the highest altitude reached by a helicopter, when he piloted an Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama to an altitude of 40,820 feet (12,442 meters), still valid as of 2017. When he reduced power and began to descend, because of the extreme cold, the engine flamed out, and Boulet performed the highest ever, power off, full touch down autorotation, landing with absolutely no power. This high altitude autorotation also set a new world record.

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