Over the years, aviation history has been marked and made by the heros and heroines of the air, some of whom have attained legendary status. The Aero-Club de France, created over a century ago, has played a key role in the making of these legends.

Aviation History and its pantheon of legendary figures owe a great deal to the Aero-Club, first launched in an attempt to appease man's greatest dream and develop a heavier-than-air flying machine. Now, a century later, children take planes as easily as their parents traveled by train. It would be easy to imagine the Aero-Club relegated to the dusty sidelines of history, with the grandchildren of its founding fathers marking the centennial of aviation in a stately, subdued manner - if it weren't for Gerard Feldzer, that is.

As Aero-Club president since 1994, Feldzer has breathed new life into the age-old association, imbuing it with the energy and spirit of its earlier days. Feldzer, an Air France pilot, has a dash of something that reminds you of the days when piloting was a perilous adventure carried out by daredevils clad in leather caps. Currently flight captain and instructor on an Airbus A 340, Feldzer worked for a quarter of a century flying a Fokker for the Postable de nuit (airmail service), before graduating to Caravelle, a Boeing 707, a Jumbo 747 and ultimately an Airbus.

Feldzer has a passion for all airborne objects, whether boomerangs, paper airplanes (he organizes world championships) or the most complex of aircraft. He was the first to cross the English Channel in an ultralight prototype, then, accompanied by the singer Alain Souchon, he broke the world light-aircraft speed record on a Paris-London flight.

In 1993, Feldzer and Nicolas Hulot attempted to cross the Atlantic in a pedal-driven airship, but the journey was aborted two-thirds of the way. Feldzer wasn't daunted however, and completed a new expedition, this time in a solar-propelled vehicle. Feldzer's story began with three Russian brothers from Kiev who emigrated between the two world wars. The eldest, Wadim, died six months after the birth of his youngest son Gerard in 1944, when one of the explosive devices he was making for the French Resistance exploded. Alexis, the youngest brother, was killed during a mission as a World War II fighter pilot in the French army. The third brother, Constantine, was also a pilot, but was banished by Vichy to a Russian labor camp. He eventually escaped and joined ranks with the Franco-Soviet Normandie-Niemen squadron. Shot down by the Germans at the end of the war, he miraculously survived the explosion of his airplane. Uncle Constantine initiated his young nephew to the pleasures of piloting. Gerard went on to study engineering in the hopes of becoming a pilot, a goal he achieved in 1973. He also created an aeronautics club and a nonprofit training program for underprivileged youths to build their own aircraft. His aim has always been to share his passion, and it is no surprise to anyone that he now presides over the prestigious Aero-Club.