The French Connection (aerobatics) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The French Connection was a famous husband-wife aerobatic

Aerobatics

Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in normal flight. Aerobatics are performed in airplanes and gliders for training, recreation, entertainment and sport...

pair that performed in countless airshow

Airshow

An air show is an event at which aviators display their flying skills and the capabilities of their aircraft to spectators in aerobatics. Air shows without aerobatic displays, having only aircraft displayed parked on the ground, are called "static air shows"....

s throughout North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

for almost 30 years.
The pair consisted of Daniel Héligoin, a former French Air Force

French Air Force

The French Air Force , literally Army of the Air) is the air force of the French Armed Forces. It was formed in 1909 as the Service Aéronautique, a service arm of the French Army, then was made an independent military arm in 1933...

fighter pilot and aerobatic champion, and Montaine Mallet, an aeronautical engineer and his assistant who later became his wife. Both Daniel and Montaine were French-born; they came to the U.S. from France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

in 1973 to promote and sell their aerobatic plane, the CAP-10, manufactured by Avions Mudry

Apex Aircraft

Apex Aircraft is a French company devoted to light aeroplane manufacture. It markets three ranges of light aircraft which it brands Robin, Alpha and CAP...

in France.
They operated an aerobatics school at Sky Acres Airport, NY, Dutchess County Airport

Dutchess County Airport

Dutchess County Airport is a county-owned public-use airport located on State Route 376 in the Town of Wappinger, Dutchess County, New York, United States, four miles south of the central business district of Poughkeepsie. It is sometimes called Poughkeepsie Airport, which gives it the code POU...

, NY, then at Flagler County Airport

Flagler County Airport

Flagler County Airport is a county-owned public-use airport located three miles east of the central business district of Bunnell, a city in Flagler County, Florida, United States...

, FL. They regularly performed at airshows around the U.S. and Canada until their death, in a training accident on May 27, 2000. Their favorite and signature 'French Connection' aerobatic routine was unique: Montaine and Daniel would fly their CAP-10 planes in an extremely tight canopy-to-canopy formation, literally inches apart, through various hair-raising aerobatic maneuvers. Daniel and Montaine loved to teach and they devoted much of their careers to aerobatic instruction.
The "French Connection Scholarship" fund was established in their name via the International Council of Air Shows Foundation.

External links

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