A graduate of the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, Pierre Lefort was a professor at the École Technique d'Aéronautique et de Construction Automobile and the Institut Polytechnique des Sciences Appliquées. A recognized specialist in rotary-wing flight, he authored several reference works on helicopters, including L'hélicoptère, théorie et pratique (Chiron, 2nd ed.) and Comment apprendre à piloter un hélicoptère (Chiron), as well as a study on gas turbines (Larousse). In the "Que sais-je?" series, he contributed two volumes on vertical flight: Le matériel volant (n° 362, French and Japanese editions, out of print) and Le vol vertical (n° 362 bis, 1966), co-written with Lionel Laming.