This book is a visual biography of the legendary Swiss aviation pioneer Alfred Comte
(1895-1965). Combining historical photos and documents with texts by Comte's son (also Alfred)
and grandson the photographer Michel Comte the book is the first to comprehensively explore
the aviator's extraordinary life and achievements. Alfred Comte grew up in the village of
Delsberg in the Berner Jura where his brother had a carpentry shop and Alfred became obsessed
with building model airplanes. At the time newspapers lauded the courageous first aviators-and
Comte's dream was born. At the age of 17 he took a taxi from Gare du Nord to Villacoublay
where a plane crashed just yards from the still moving vehicle. Unmoved Comte spent his
savings on flying lessons on an early Morane machine he was a fearless and calculated student
and soon made his first solo flights as well as forays into aerobatics. Comte joined the Swiss
Air Force at the outbreak of the First World War during which Oskar Bider selected him to
train 63 young pilots. Among them was the avid photographer Walter Mittelholzer who later
became Comte's first partner in the Comte Mittelholzer & Cie which in time became Swissair.
