Gérard Paul Alain Feldzer (born 10 February 1944) is a consultant and aeronautical popularizer. He is a former French

airline pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they ar ...

, President of ''Comité régional de tourisme d'Île-de-France'' (Regional Committee of

Île-de-France The Île-de-France (, ; literally "Isle of France") is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France. Centred on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the ''Région parisienne'' (; en, Pa ...

Tourism) since May 2010,Le Bourget : Une femme succède à Gérard Feldzer au musée de l’Air
/ref> and Vice-Président of ''Ports de Paris'' (Ports of Paris). He has also been Regional Advisor of

for ''

Europe Écologie Europe Ecology (french: Europe Écologie) was a green electoral coalition of political parties in France created for the 2009 European elections composed of The Greens and other ecologists and regionalists. For the European Parliament election ...

'' since March 2010 and a close friend of

Nicolas Hulot Nicolas Jacques André Hulot (; born 30 April 1955) is a French journalist and environmental activist. He is the founder and honorary president of the Nicolas Hulot Foundation, an environmental group established in 1990. Hulot ran as a candida ...

Biography

Gérard Feldzer was born in 1944 in Aurec-sur-Loire. He started his career as an

at ''

Air Algérie Air Algérie SpA ( ar, الخطوط الجوية الجزائرية, ; ber, Aeriverdan idzayriyen) is the flag carrier of Algeria, with its head office in the Immeuble El-Djazair in Algiers. With flights operating from Houari Boumedienne Air ...

'' (1973–1974) and moved to '' Aéropostale'' where he did night flights from 1974-1976. At Air France, he was a pilot on ''

Sud Aviation Caravelle The Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle is a French jet airliner produced by Sud Aviation. It was developed by SNCASE in the early 1950s and made its maiden flight on 27 May 1955. It included some de Havilland designs and components developed for ...

'',

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December ...

and

747 747 may refer to: * 747 (number), a number * AD 747, a year of the Julian calendar * 747 BC, a year in the 8th century BC * Boeing 747, a large commercial jet airliner Music and film * 747s (band), an indie band * ''747'' (album), by country musi ...

aircraft,

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

(1989–1992) then

Instructor (1992–2004) on

Airbus A310 The Airbus A310 is a wide-body aircraft, designed and manufactured by Airbus Industrie, then a consortium of European aerospace manufacturers. Airbus had identified a demand for an aircraft smaller than the A300, the first twin-jet wide-b ...

A340 The Airbus A340 is a long-range, wide-body passenger airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. In the mid-1970s, Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner, and developed the A340 quadjet in parallel with ...

and A330. In 1985, he applied for an

Astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

job at

CNES The (CNES; French: ''Centre national d'études spatiales'') is the French government space agency (administratively, a "public administration with industrial and commercial purpose"). Its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is un ...

and was one of ten finalists. He became President of the ''

Aéro-Club de France The Aéro-Club de France () was founded as the Aéro-Club on 20 October 1898 as a society 'to encourage aerial locomotion' by Ernest Archdeacon, Léon Serpollet, Henri de la Valette, Jules Verne and his wife, André Michelin, Albert de Dion, ...

'' between 1995 and 2005. The centenary of the club took place during his presidency, and he organized a major exhibition of planes in Paris on the ''

Champs-Élysées The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is l ...

'' to celebrate it. Between 2005 and August 2010, Gérard Feldzer was head of the '' Musée de l'Air'' (French Air and Space Museum) at

Le Bourget Le Bourget () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. The commune features Le Bourget Airport, which in turn hosts the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace (Air and Space Museum). A very ...

,. He made many animations and creations there including "''Planete Pilote''" ("Planet pilot"), the first space exhibition in the world aimed at 6-12 year olds. He co-founded ''Zebunet'' (a micro-credit organisation for poor farmers in southern countries ) in 2001 and he has been its Vice-President since then. He also founded the "''Les ailes de la ville''" scheme, which provides training and integration for young suburban people through repairing and constructing aircraft. As Founder and President of the "
Transports passion
'" association, he has organized their annual meetings, exhibitions and events on ecomobility since 2005. On 1 January 2012, he became Officiers of the Légion d'honneur.

Media

Radio

Feldzer has had a weekly radio show on ''

France Info France Info (stylised as franceinfo:) is a French public broadcasting service produced in collaboration with France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde and the Institut national de l'audiovisuel. The service includes a radio ...

'' since 2009. Recent episodes include ''Circulez! il y a le monde à voir'' (Move! there is the world to see)).

TV series

Feldzer wrote and directed the following series: * ''Le Bar de l'escadrille'' (

France 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on ...

, 1985) * ''Un ticket pour l'espace'' (

, 1990) * ''Les allumés du sport'' (

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow unde ...

1992) and co-wrote the transport series ''Transportez-moi'' in 2011, which aired on LCP TV in 2012.

Books

* ''Demain, je serai pilote''.Gérard Feldzer

Bibliography

* ''Demain je serai pilote'', Gallimard, 1999 () * Académie nationale de l'air et de l'espace and Lucien Robineau, ''Les Français du ciel, dictionnaire historique'', Le Cherche midi, June 2005, 782 p. (), p. 212, ''FELDZER, Gérard''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feldzer, Gerard 1944 births Space program of France Living people École nationale de l'aviation civile alumni Aviation in France French aviators Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite French aerospace engineers Commercial aviators