Jean Bertin

Jean Henri Bertin was a French scientist, engineer and inventor who is best known as the lead engineer for the French experimental Aérotrain mass transit system.

Biography

Bertin was born in Druyes-les-Belles-Fontaines, Yonne and died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine. He studied at the École polytechnique and at the École nationale supérieure de l'aéronautique. From 1944 he worked for the French National Society for the Development of Aircraft Engines.
In 1955 he founded the company Bertin & Cie, whose most famous activity was the development of the Aérotrain. In 1965 he founded the Société d'Étude et de Développement des Aéroglisseurs Marins as a subsidiary for hovercraft. Bertin died of a brain tumour just over a year and a half after the French government terminated the contract for a planned Aérotrain line between Cergy and La Défense in Greater Paris.