47°22'16"N 000°44'28"E
Flying field: min. 140m wide square circuit of 2000m - grass
The airfield of St Avertin was a small purpose built airfield 205 kilometers southwest of Paris.
It was built in 1910 near a place called the écorcheveau. The airfield is noteworthy because it was built to last only one week, from 30 April to 5 May 1910 for the purpose of celebrating aviation.
Major resources were put in place for the event. A large fence was erected around the airfield to make people who wanted to airplanes fly pay. By that time the planes were not flying very high.
Plan of the airfield. (courtesy of Claude Fillet and Jean-Pierre Bezard)
The 5000m palisade fence was held by 3800 posts. Also, there were three hangars, 1 office, 4 buffets and 2 stands for the public. The entire setup required 800square meter of wood and 18 km of barbed wire, which made up 6500m2 of airfield. 80 workers were on the job for a month. A double 4m high fence was installed in parrallel to the larger one to ensure that people could not see the ground from the surrounding heights. For obvious reasons the authorities declared it was to prevent accidents.
On the terrain, a rectangular 2 km track is bordered by four pylons.
Members of the committee. (courtesy of Claude Fillet and Jean-Pierre Bezard)
Challenges with attractive prices were made to challenge the pilots who attended. Members of the Tours Aviation Committee, headed by Committee President Mr. Saussay, came to visit the airmen at their hangars on the eve of the opening of the meeting.
Photo taken during the festival. (courtesy of Claude Fillet and Jean-Pierre Bezard)
Flights and events took place throughout the week, but the public was very unhappy when only a few pilots flew. Even when they did fly, they did so only in the evening because of the weather. Aircraft of this period are very lihtly powered and extremely sensitive to wind.
WEEK OF AVIATION AT TOURS (30 April - 5 May 1910) - Official Edition - ND Phot.
124 - Chavez flying in front of the speaker stands and wins the distance prize in a H. Farman biplane
with a 10m wingspan, 56hp Gnome engine (3 May)
(courtesy of Claude Fillet and Jean-Pierre Bezard)
On 5 May, the festival ended. In the newspapers of 8 to 12 May 1910, the following small ad could be read:
Exceptional opportunity ... for sale: sheds, playhouses, booths of all sizes, timber in new condition.
An attempt to earn money from the facilities that had been installed (at great expense) for the five days of the meeting only half succeeded. The continuous rains and 16 May 1910 flooding of 3 meters washed away part of the fence that had not yet been removed.
Sample postcard published following this évênement. (courtesy of Claude Fillet and Jean-Pierre Bezard)
Today, the area has changed unrecognisably. Nothing remains of the former airfield.
(Research by Olivier)
Saint Avertin 
Saint Avertin