thumb|right|150 px|Roland Garros in [[Tunisia immediately after crossing the Mediterranean by air. September 1913]]
'''Roland Garros''' (French aviator and a fighter aircraft pilot during World War I.

==Biography==
Garros was born in Santos-Dumont's Demoiselle monoplane, an aircraft that only flew well with a small lightweight pilot. In 1911 Garros graduated to flying Bleriot monoplanes and entered a number of European air races with this type of machine.
He was already a noted aviator before World War I; by 1913 he had switched to flying Morane-Saulnier monoplanes, a vast improvement over the Bleriot, and gained fame for making the first nonstop flight across the Mediterranean Sea from Fréjus in south of France to Bizerte in Tunisia.  The following year, Garros joined the French army at the outbreak of the conflict.

===Garros and Development of Interruptor Gear===
In the early stages of the air war in World War 1 the problem of achieving a practicable platform for a forward-firing machine gun on combat aircraft was considered by a number of individuals.  The so-called Interrupter gear did not come into use until Anthony Fokker developed a synchronisation device which made a large impact on air combat, however Garros also had a significant role in the process of achieving this goal.

In Escadrille MS26, visited the German aircraft were achieved on 15th and 18th April 1915.<ref>van Wyngarden</ref> 

On April 18, 1915, either Garros' fuel line clogged or, by other accounts, his aircraft was downed by ground fire,<ref>van Wyngarden</ref> and he glided to a landing on the German side of the lines. Garros succeeded in burning the aircraft before being taken prisoner but the gun and armoured propellor remained intact. After examining the plane, German aircraft engineers, led by Fokker, designed the improved interrupter gear system. The tables were reversed against the Allies due to Fokker's planes shooting down nearly every enemy aircraft they met, leading to what became known as the Fokker Scourge.

Garros managed to escape from a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany in February 1918 and rejoined the French army. On October 5, 1918, he was shot down and killed near Vouziers, Ardennes, a month shy of the end of the war.

Garros is erroneously called the world's first fighter ace. In fact, he shot down three aircraft, and the honor of the first ace went to another French airman, Adolphe Pegoud.

==Places named after Roland Garros==

In the French Open, one of tennis' Grand Slam tournaments. Consequently, the tournament is officially called Roland Garros. 

thumb|left|130px|ローラン・ギャロス
'''ローラン・ギャロス''' （Roland Garros, エースパイロットである。
thumb|220px|[[モラーヌ・ソルニエ戦闘機とギャロス]]

1913年に地中海横断飛行をおこなったパイロットとして知られていた。第一次大戦が始まるとフランス空軍に加わった。牽引式の戦闘機の機銃の命中率をあげるため、プロペラに防弾板をとりつけ、プロペラの回転面内を通して射撃をおこなう方法を考案した。1915年4月の実践投入後、すぐに3機を撃墜する戦果を挙げた。

1915年4月18日に撃墜され、ドイツ領内に不時着した。フォッカー EIIIなどにアイデアは模倣され、改良されたプロペラ同期機関銃は、逆にドイツ機優越の原因となった。

1918年2月、捕虜収容所から脱走して、再び空軍に復帰したが、10月5日に撃墜され死亡した。
160px|thumb|right|[[プジョー・306の<br />ローラン・ギャロスエンブレム]]
ローラン・ギャロス・トーナメントと呼ばれるテニスの全仏オープンと、その会場となるスタッド・ローラン・ギャロスは、彼の功績を讃えて命名された。

また、このトーナメントをスポンサードする自動車会社のプジョーでは、濃緑の塗色と本革内装を組み合わせた、ローラン・ギャロス・エディションを、歴代量販モデルに設定している。

== 関連項目 ==
* テニス4大大会の1つ）