French aviator, noted for his skills as a test, fighter and aerobatic pilot. In 1927, his fame reached its peak after he won an epic aerobatic duel with the German ace Gerhard Fieseler, whereby Doret was crowned roi de l’air (“king of the sky”).
He enlisted at 18, at the start of the Great War, in the artillery and combat force in Verdun. He was wounded three years later and received the military medal.
At the end of the war, while a worker at Renault, Émile Dewoitine noticed him in an airshow. On 1 June 1923, Doret joined his factories in Toulouse as a test pilot, and quickly became chief test pilot. Until 1939, he developed forty-three prototypes of very different aircraft, which gave him almost total control of piloting. With the production of airliners, such as the Dewoitine D.332 Émeraude, he was brought to transport them to more and more distant countries and became one of the first international airline pilots.
As a raid pilot, he won eighteen international records, including the closed circuit distance record. From 7-10 June 1931, he exceeded 10,000 km on the Dewoitine D.33 Trait d’union, with his teammates Joseph-Marie Le Brix and René Mesmin. In a new attempt at a straight-line record, the aircraft, its engine frozen over Siberia, landed in trees. The plane was destroyed, but the crew unharmed. The second prototype took off from Paris on 11 September 1931, with the Tokyo as the destination. On the morning of the 12th, the aircraft was caught in bad weather and it crashed in the Urals. Doret was the only survivor, Le Brix and Mesmin were unable to parachute.
In 1937, he attempted a Paris-Tokyo flight twice at the controls of a Caudron Simoun, with Jérôme Micheletti. The first time, they had to stop in Hanoi. The second, they got lost and had to land on an island beach, 500 km from their goal.
Very early in his career, Marcel Doret took up aerobatics, with his D.27’s wings streaked in red, which has become legendary. His duels with other champions, like Michel Détroyat, attracted huge crowds.
In 1944, Marcel Doret took command of the 1st Fighter Group FFI, known as the Doret Group (composed of two squadrons commanded by Leopold Galy and Cliquet), formed with the Dewoitine D.520. This group was integrated in November 1944 into the Atlantic Air Force to attack the Germans in the Bordeaux region and the Royan pocket.
After the war, he devoted himself to airshows and demonstrations. He logged more than 6,000 flight hours, and was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour.
Marcel Doret died from cancer on 31 August 1955 at age 59 at his home in Vernet, after having published a book of memoirs, Trait d’union avec le ciel.
Link to Wikipedia biography (French)