History of aviation – October 14, 1924. Every year, since 1922, date of the first edition, the Lamblin Cup has taken place, bearing the name of an industrialist, Alexandre Lamblin, to whom we owe automobile and airplane radiators. This event is a handicap race, attempts must be made between April 1 and October 31. The contenders for the prize must cover a defined route as quickly as possible. This competition attracts the desire of quite a few aviators and on October 14, 1924, seven pilots were on the starting line.
A handicap race requires that everyone’s timer will be reduced by a certain number of minutes depending on the power displayed by the engine of their device but also the load carried.
The aviators Latapie, Carrié, Battesti, Hérissé, Quintard, Bouzac, as well as Hernu will take off on October 14, 1924, leaving from the Bourget aerodrome, in the Paris region, to evolve on the Le Bourget – Istres – Le circuit. Bourget, a distance of 1,260 kilometers to cover. An exercise that Hernu will carry out brilliantly, since he will record the best performance, which will not be improved the following days and wins 10,000 francs.
He is installed at the controls of a Farman – Jabiru monoplane with four Hispano-Suiza engines with a power of 180 horsepower, with 750 kg of ballast and two passengers (i.e. a handicap of 2 hours), which he will carry out his flight, taking 7 h 37 min 8 1/5 s to complete the journey.
