His interest in aircrafts soon changed into passion, a passion which he had in him for several years. It all started in Saint-Maurice de Rémens during a summer holiday. Near the castle there was an aircraft field which he subrepticiously used to approach in order to watch the comings and goings of pilots and mechanics. Antoine quickly became fond of all these people, completely dedicated to make perfect this newly-born means of transport.
From the beginning he liked the atmosphere of comradeship' and brotherhood which reigned among them. Soon they became acquinted with each other and one day a miracle happened: a well known pilot, Vedrines, puzzled by the eagerness of the young boy, suggested an excursion by plane. That very day of the year 1912 Antoine gave shape to the emotions he had felt during his first trip in the air. Only these three verses remain:"Les ailes fre'missaient sous le souffle du soirLe moteur de son chant bercait l'dme endormie Le soleil nous frdlait de sa couleur pdlie."
Antoine had just discovered that he too, had the soul of a pilot. He changed his bicycle into an airplane by fitting to it two wings he had made out of a bedsheet, and after taking seat on his machine he exclaimed proudly: "You shall see when I take off on my plane. The crowd will shout: Hurrah Antoine de Saint-Exupéry!" Many years went by.
Military service
Antoine was about to be twenty-one when the Second Regiment of the Aircraft Forces in Strasbourg called him up to military service. Soon he was disillusioned: they did not admit him among the flying personnel; instead he was assigned to the landing services as an assistant. His desire to fly was not going to be fulfilled this time either. Antoine felt down and, as usual, he disclosed his grief to his mother: "At night I feel a little sadness. You ought to come here, to Strasbourg, some day. I am somewhat choking in this atmosphere. I have no prospects. I need to occupy myself with something that I like." (Letter to his mother, Strasbourg 1921.)
But now he had found his way and had made the decision to be successful by all means: "Mum" he goes on, "if you only knew how irresistible is my desire to fly! if I do not attain my aim, I shall be very unhappy.., but I shall attain it." And he was successful. He took private coaching from a civil monitor, and a few months later he had a civil pilot's diploma. That had not been easy at alt The coaching was expensive and the money from the grant was not enough. So he had to resort all the time to his mother's generosity.
This explains why his being impatient, which almost cost him his life and which made Commander Garde utter the sentence: "Saint-Exupéry, you shall never kill yourself in an airplane accident, otherwise you would have done so already."As Antoine wants to become a military pilot, he is sent to Rabat where he will undergo the necessary instruction. Six months later he obtains the diploma, and with it the rank of second lieutenant. His destination is the 33rd Aircraft Regiment at Le Bourget in Paris. But Antoine is not favored by fortune's privileges. When everything seemed to be going well -his profession, his girl friend, good prospects-, a new accident interrupts his bliss. His future stepfather asks him to resign. Again he is without a job and morally very affected.
Long embittered months
Shortly after recovering from his broken bones, he finds a job as supervisor in a tile factory. But Antoine is not made for counting tiles. He feels that he is a prisoner of figures... endless columns of figures like prison bars, and a prisoner of his four-walled office. "What a pitiful object I must be... But I do not have a single friend who might show sympathy towards me... Chum, my situation is despicable. I yawn in an office of two meters long by two meters wide and look out of the window at the rain falling on the court-yard. I also make sums.
And I sort out files, too, as told... Life is very sad. I should like to change office. I have been doing the same thing too long a time. I am the most dispirited guy in the world. " (Paris 1923) His life is divided between the office and the unpretending guest-house where he lives. "Life is sad in this shabby little hotel in the Ornano boulevard, 70 his... Is not very funny." (Letter to his mother, Paris 1923.) One of his sources of joy is the airplane. During his free time he pilots an airplane. When his finances allow him to... Then his enthusiasm has no limits: "...On Sunday I went for a spin on an airplane.
I had a good flight. Mum, I adore this occupation. You cannot imagine the calm-ness and solitude one finds at 4.000 meters of altitude, alone with the engine." (Letter to his mother, Paris 1923.) Aside from the airplane, friends are also a good part of his life during that period of depression. Often he is invited to parties. Also he goes out in a group to the theatre, for a drink... Antoine feels that he is understood and supported: "Mum, I have a new joy in my life. I have the best friends you can imagine. At the moment they go through an epidemic of liking me. (Letter to his mother, Paris 1924.)
Girlfriend left
But since his girlfriend suddenly left him -some thought that her family did not like him, others thought that he preferred airplanes to her-, he has more supply of love than ever, and marriage seems to him the ideal solution: "...I feel like getting married, not very much though... but I do not know whom to. Moreover l have provisions of fatherly love. I should like to have lots of little Antoines..." (Letter to his mother, Paris 1924.)
At the end of 1924 he changes job. He becomes a representative of Saurer lorrys. He is in charge of three departments, and spends his time travelling all over the place. But he does not excel either in his new job: in fifteen months he only manages to sell one single lorry. But Paris continues to be his headquarters more than ever, and, in Paris, the house of a distant relative, Ivonne de Lestranges, a learned lady who entertains in her saloons well known writers like Gide, Gallimard, later Antoine's publisher... and there Antoine happens to meet Jean Prevost, secretary of the magazine "Navire d'argent", who suggests to the possibility of writing something.
One day, Antoine timidly hands him a few pages that he has written during his free time, following his advice. The response is neither a letter nor a few words, but the publishing oft few pages in that magazine, in the April number of 1926. It is his short story. The Pilot surprises all and everyone that surround him have known him for a long time. The Pilot is through and through autobiographical. It tells the story of a flying monitor who, like Antoine, has depressions whenever he leaves his airplane. It is an interesting story as the airplane is the central character of it. Until then the -been unedited. The Pilot is like a revelation to Saint-Exupéry... flies he shall be able to write. The success of his first literary composition coincides with his the airline company Latecoere.
"Saint-Ex", civil pilot
Father Sudour, former teacher at the Bossuet school, liked Antoine verv much, and so he recommended him to Beppo de Massimi, manager of the airline company Latdcoe're, born out of a project, both ambitious -bring into being a commercial company able to cross the seas-and social -make contacts easier between nations-.
It was the result of the willpower of three men: Massimi, Didier Daurat, two experienced pilots, and Pierre Latecoere, engineer and aircraft builder in his own factory. In 1919 took place the first civil flight between Toulouse and Rabat. Nothing could stop them toward the goal that they had set themselves... to reach Dakar and afterwards South America, covering a total distance of 12.400 kilometres.
When Sain-Exupéry first meets Beppo de Massimi, in 1926, civil flights have increased and they reach Dakar already. Flying conditions are still very tough, so that the pilots are required to be very much aware of their duty and responsibility. In fact, the flights have to be operated daily, all the time. Nothing should stop a pilot. Saint-Exupéry is prepared to do anything in order to be able to fly, and so he applies for a post as a pilot.
Soon after he is ordered to present himself to Didier Daurat in Toulouse, Chief Manager of the Civil airlines Toulouse-Dakar. From this interview Daurat kept the memory of " a man with a mellow voice, unassuming air about him and an earnest face. As the conversation went on and became more lively, his replies to my questions revealed a young man gifted with a true pilot's nature, and also with that of an inventor of fertile imagination".
Successful on the acid test
Saint-Exupéry had just been successful on the acid test. Indeed, Daurat was larger than life. Everybody feared him, from the humblest mechanic to the oldest pilot. Also his task was a difficult one: to attend to the good running of the airline. He was severe with himself and with others. He could not accept the slightest mistake or weakness of the mechanics or the pilots. He was known as an insentive and unyielding man. As a matter of fact Swnt-Exupéry took his inspiration from Daurat in order to give shape, later, to the main character in Night Flight.
The first thing Daurat did with Saint-Exupery was to send him for a to the repair workshops. It was like an entrance examination which Daurat imposed on every one who wanted to join his factory... "in order to take off them the mask of pride that they wear". Many a one took it as punishment and left after a few days. Of course, it was not Daurat's job. He only wanted them to be aware of the requirements of the They all, mechanics and pilots, worked for the same cause and needed each other. From the very first moment he was enthusiastic about the atmosphere comradeship which existed among them. After a few months he was allowed to undergo a pilot's rest.
First mail flight: Toulouse-Rabat
Everything went all right. A few days later he took off on his first mail flight: Toulouse-Rabat. Later he was assigned to the Dakar-Casablanca area. At last Saint-Exupéry felt himself fulfiilled. From Dakar, in 1926, he wrote to his mother: "I am all right and I am happy." (Letter to his mother, Dakar 1926.) Each take-off was like a new adventure. How would the airplane react this time? What was the weather going to be like, up there? Aircrafts were quite different from the ones Saint-Exupéry had known a few years earlier.
The matter of the fact is that he realized that the danger was greater than originally thought, when he had to fly from Dakar to Casablanca 2.765 kilometers across African territory, where dissident tribes watched the sky, ready to open fire on any plane in sight. The danger existed also of having an accident in the desert, and so be caught by the rebels and have his throat cut. Saint-Exupéry, or "Saint-Ex" for his team friends, had been civil pilot for a year when Didier Daurat decided to appoint him chief director of the airplace in Cape Juby. It was on the 19 of October 1927.