ETIENNE TSU 1885-1940 AKA? Etienne Ytu

Etienne Tsu via email from ArnaudCanteloup, 1-29-08

 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE via email from Dave Lam, 4-1-05 Ralph,      This is probably the same person as the Etienne YTU, who received French license # 1609 on 6 March 1914, flying a Morane. Dave

 

Etienne Tsu via email from ArnaudCanteloup, 1-29-08

 

ONLINE RESOURCES      If you search for "Etienne Tsu", using the Google search engine, (1-29-08), you will find about 53 links. Most of them are quite fragmentary in their coverage, although the several on the Aerodrome website are helpful. One which offers a summary of his life and career is the following.

 

"La recherche de la nouveauté" : Etienne Tsu "The research of the innovation ": Etienne Tsu      This story of the pioneer aviator Etienne Tsu is in French. I have extracted and translated portions of the story which relate to René Vallon.      Etienne Tsu, son of Nicolas Tsu, was born in Shanghai in 1885. He was sent to Europe for his higher studies in 1890. In 1903, he graduated from the School of mechanics of Lille with a degree in engineering. On his return to Shanghai, he undertook research in the field of the shipbuilding and then later into the beginnings of the automobile industry. The exploits of René Vallon in 1911 gave birth in him to a career in aviation. He was impassioned to such a degree with air locomotion that he returned to France in 1913 to learn to fly in Villacoublay. Licensed in 1914, he joined the French Foreign Legion and was immediately assigned to their airforce. As a fighter pilot in 1915, he distinguished himself and his confirmed kills earned him the Military Cross with palms. Demobilized in 1919, he returned to China where he took part in the creation of the Chinese Flying school which was equipped with French machines. A Colonel in 1925, he died in Shanghai in 1940 (?) Note from Patrick et Yolaine HALLEGUEN: Villacoublay is an airfield south of Paris and not so far from Versailles. It has a very old history, and is still used by general aviation but also by test pilots.

 

Etienne Tsu is reported above to have died in Shanghai in 1940   Editor's Note: If you have any more information on this pioneer aviator please contact me. E-mail to Ralph Cooper

 

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