Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros (; 6 October 1888 – 5 October 1918) was a French pioneering aviator and fighter pilot during World War I and early days of aviation.
He was a close friend of Ettore Bugatti and in 1913 became the first owner of Garros Bugatti Type 18, later christened Black Bess by its second owner, British racing driver Ivy Cummings, which survives today at the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands. === Aviation === During his summer holiday in 1909, at Sapicourt near Reims, staying with a friend's uncle, he saw the Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne which ran from 22 to 29 August.
After this, he knew he had to be an aviator. He started his aviation career in 1909 flying a Demoiselle (dragonfly) monoplane, an aircraft that flew well only if it had a small lightweight pilot.
In 1911 Garros graduated to flying Blériot XI monoplanes and entered a number of European air races with this type of aircraft, including the 1911 Paris to Madrid air race and the Circuit of Europe (Paris–London–Paris), in which he came second. On 4 September 1911, he set an altitude record of .
The following year, on 6 September 1912, after Austrian aviator Philipp von Blaschke had flown to , he regained the height record by flying to . By 1913 he was flying the faster Morane-Saulnier monoplanes, and on 23 September gained fame for making the first non-stop flight across the Mediterranean Sea from Fréjus-Saint Raphaël in the south of France to Bizerte in Tunisia in a Morane-Saulnier G.
He was a close friend of Ettore Bugatti and in 1913 became the first owner of Garros Bugatti Type 18, later christened Black Bess by its second owner, British racing driver Ivy Cummings, which survives today at the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands. === Aviation === During his summer holiday in 1909, at Sapicourt near Reims, staying with a friend's uncle, he saw the Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne which ran from 22 to 29 August.
The following year, on 6 September 1912, after Austrian aviator Philipp von Blaschke had flown to , he regained the height record by flying to . By 1913 he was flying the faster Morane-Saulnier monoplanes, and on 23 September gained fame for making the first non-stop flight across the Mediterranean Sea from Fréjus-Saint Raphaël in the south of France to Bizerte in Tunisia in a Morane-Saulnier G.
The following year, Garros joined the French army at the outbreak of World War I. === Myth of first air battle === Reports published in August 1914 claimed Garros was involved in the "first air battle in world history" and that he had flown his plane into a Zeppelin, destroying the airship and killing its pilots and himself.
Later sources indicated the first aerial victory against a Zeppelin occurred in June 1915 and earlier reports, including that of Garros, had been discounted. === Development of interrupter gear === In the early stages of the air war in World War I, the problem of mounting a forward-firing machine gun on combat aircraft was considered by several people.
With a workable installation now fitted to his Morane-Saulnier Type L parasol monoplane, Garros achieved the first ever shooting-down of an aircraft by a fighter firing through a tractor propeller, on 1 April 1915 and two more victories over German aircraft were achieved on 15 and 18 April 1915.
The Aero Club of America awarded him a medal for this invention three years later. On 18 April 1915, Garros was hit by ground fire, and he came down in German-controlled territory where he failed to destroy his aircraft before being captured, and the intact gun and armoured propeller.
Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros (; 6 October 1888 – 5 October 1918) was a French pioneering aviator and fighter pilot during World War I and early days of aviation.
He settled into Escadrille 26 to pilot a SPAD, and claimed two victories on 2 October 1918, one of which was confirmed. === Death === On 5 October 1918, he was shot down and killed near Vouziers, Ardennes, a month before the end of the war and one day before his 30th birthday.
The honour of becoming the first ace went to another French airman, Adolphe Pégoud, who had six victories early in the war. The Stade Roland Garros tennis centre constructed in Paris in the 1920s was named after him.
In 1928, the Roland Garros tennis stadium was named in his memory; the French Open tennis tournament takes the name of Roland-Garros from the stadium in which it is held. == Biography == Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros was born in Saint-Denis, Réunion, and studied at the Lycée Janson de Sailly and HEC Paris. At the age of 12, he contracted pneumonia, and was sent to Cannes to recuperate.
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