{{redirect-distinguish|Letord|Letort (disambiguation){{!}}Letort}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Émile-Louis Letord | image = <!-- just the filename, without the File: or Image: prefix or enclosing brackets --> | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by the blind and visually impaired's speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = {{birth date text|10 march 1880}} <!-- {{Birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} for living people - supply only the year unless the exact date is already widely published, as per WP:DOB. For people that have died, use {{Birth date|YYYY|MM|DD}}. --> | birth_place = Meudon, France | death_date = {{death date and age text|28 march 1971|10 march 1880}} <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | death_place = Meudon | other_names = | occupation = Engineer; Company founder | years_active = | known_for = industrialist and pioneer Aeroplane manufacturer | notable_works = }} '''Émile Louis Letord''', sometimes spelled ''Letort'', (1880–1971) was a French industrialist and pioneer aeroplane manufacturer who founded the Société d'Aviation Letord from the ''Letord and Niepce'' workshops at Meudon, near Paris.<ref>{{cite book|title=Histoire des aérostiers et des pionniers de l'aviation jusqu'en 1940|publisher=Amis de Clamart|year=1994|pages=102|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BvQfAQAAIAAJ}}</ref>
In 1909 Letord and Niepce built their first aircraft, a monoplane, at their workshops on rue de Paira at Meudon. In 1910 they were commissioned to build a Farman type biplane by Colonel Dorand, director of the Service technique de l'aéronautique (STAé) at Chalais-Meudon. Letord went on to build the Dorand AR.1 and 2 and the three-seater armed reconnaissance Letord 1. Letord also undertook sub-contract work for major aircraft manufacturers such as Nieuport. Some 1,500 aircraft were ordered by the Aéronautique Militaire between all the variants, with something like 300 actually produced before the end of the war.
On 17 February 1930 a fire destroyed the workshops and aircraft at Meudon, these included a twin tri-motor engined Couzinet 20 and a Couzinet 27 ''Arc-en-ciel II''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aerostories.free.fr/constructeurs/couzinet/page3.html|title=René Couzinet: from glory to decline|publisher=Aérostories|access-date=5 January 2014}}</ref><ref name="aerostories">[http://aerostories.free.fr/constructeurs/couzinet/page3.html Aerostories. René Couzinet - from glory to decline]</ref>
Letord is associated with around 40 patent applications for improvements to aircraft design between 1919 and 1953, and some patents on other topics. Some of the applications are shared with Marcel Letort, Camille Letort and Louis Béchereau.<ref name="Patents">[https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Emile+Letord&sort=old Letord's patents] listed by Google Patents</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
===Bibliography=== * La Conquete de L'Air. Un Pionier Inconnu : Emile -Louis Letord, l'Avionneur de Meudon, By Albert Henri, 1982. ''(The Conquest of the Air. An unknown pioneer : Emile-Louis Letord, the Aviator of Meudon.)''
==External links== {{Letord aircraft}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Letord, Emile Louis}} Category:1880 births Category:1971 deaths Category:Businesspeople from Paris Category:French aviation pioneers Category:Aviators from Paris Category:French aerospace engineers Category:Aviation history of France