Patrick Facon (Constantine, 1949 – 2016) was one of France's leading historians of air power and of the French Air Force. A doctor of history (Paris-Nanterre, 1977) and director of research at the Air Force Historical Service from 1980, he published more than thirty reference works on military aviation and air warfare, edited many specialized encyclopedias and wrote several hundred articles. A few months before his death he was awarded the Aeronautics Medal. In La conquête de l'espace (Larousse, 1983) he wrote the second part, on "heavier-than-air" flight, covering aviation from the pioneers to the jet age.