the aviators who were using the Omega. At Gnome, he worked with Jules Védrines, another young engineer who went on to win the special consolation prize in the 1911 Daily Mail Round-Britain Air race and the overall prize in the 1911 Paris to Madrid air race. One of the notable events of the Grande Semaine d'Aviation held at Reims in August 1909 was the public debut of the Gnome rotary engine, and Gnome-engined aircraft won first and third places in the distance prize. Henri Farman's winning flight of () was made with a Gnome engine which had been installed immediately before the flight, his previous engine having proved unreliable. He used the same aircraft to win the passenger carrying prize. Blériot years On 20 August 1910, Lemartin signed a contract to join Louis Bleriot's flying school to train as a pilot and work as an engineer. By this contract, he becomes the first ever official Test Pilot in the world. He qualified six weeks later on 4 October. His registration number was 249, and he was assigned to Bleriot's schools at Étampes and Pau. His contract entitled him to 400 francs per month (about €1,100 in 2006), 30 francs per flight (~€80), and 32,500 francs (~€87,000) to his widow in case of death. On 4 October 1910 he was awarded Aviator's Certificate number 249 by the Aéro-Club de France. On 3 February 1911, at Pau, he broke the world record by carrying seven passengers in a Blériot XIII, surpassing Roger Sommer's previous record of six. During March 1911, he went on to increase the record to eight, then eleven, and finally thirteen passengers, and including the aviators Jeanne Herveu (founder of the first flying school for women.), and Paul Wyss, a Swiss pilot who was training at the Bleriot school in Pau at the time. On 24 May 1911, three weeks before his death, he reportedly surpassed the world speed record, although it was never officially authorised. He achieved between Etampes and Toury in a Blériot using "his own" enhanced model of the Gnome motor. (The official record of was set by Leblanc on 12 June during qualifying for the Gordon Bennett Trophy.) On 1 June 1911, he signed a new contract with Louis Bleriot, becoming a member of the race team to compete at major events and receive one third of any prizes won. The total prize money for