Marc Pourpe

Marc Pourpe (May 17, 1887 – December 2, 1914) was a French aviation pioneer and stunt flyer. His mother was Marie-Anne Olympe, later known as the famous courtesan Liane de Pougy, and his father a young naval officer, Armand Pourpe. He made the first airmail flight in Egypt flying from Cairo to Khartoum. Pourpe died in World War I on a reconnaissance mission over the Somme in December 1914.

Marc Pourpe was born on May 17, 1887 in Lorient, France to the famous courtesan, Liane de Pougy. His father was Armand Pourpe, a young naval officer who later became a senior officer in the Suez Canal Company. His parents' marriage was not a happy one. His mother, then known as Marie-Anne Pourpe, had run off with Pourpe when she was only 16, and they only married once she became pregnant. She later claimed in her memoirs that her new husband took her violently on their wedding night, an event which left her emotionally scarred.

When Armand Pourpe's naval career led him to a billet in Marseilles, Marie-Anne took a lover, Charles the 5th Marquis de MacMahon. Her husband found them in bed together and shot her. They divorced shortly thereafter. Marie-Anne went to Paris, leaving her infant son with his father. Armand sent his son to live with the boy's paternal grandparents, in Suez.

Young Marc Pourpe studied at Harrow in anticipation of attending Cambridge or Oxford.

In 1912, while barnstorming in Calcutta in a Blériot, Pourpe met Raoul Lufbery, whom he later hired as his mechanic. The two then began travelling together, continuing Pourpe's tour of Asia, Europe and Africa.

Pourpe took part in an early "Aviation Week" held at In 1914, in Heliopolis, near Cairo from January 2 through 12, 1914. While there he made the first airmail flight in Egypt, flying the 1250 miles from Cairo to Khartoum from January 4 to the 12th, with stops in Luxor, Wadi Halfa and Abu Hamed. Lufbery was Pourpe's mechanic for the trip. A special stamp was issued to commemorate the event, and air mail delivery was announced.

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