Maurice Hurel was born in Cherbourg during 1896. His father was a naval officer and this influenced his choice of career for, after gaining his baccalaureat, he entered the Ecole Navale in 1914 and graduated top of the 1917 class. Assigned to the French Navy, he asked for a transfer to the naval air arm, the Aeronautique Navale, that year and received his pilot's wings in 1918. He also qualified as a fighter pilot, likewise in record time. After the war he remained in the navy, attending the Ecole Superieure d'Aeronautique. His engineering thesis on high-aspect ratio wings earned him a diploma, albeit with a poor mark for the first time in his life. Afterwards he became a test pilot with the Commission d'Etudes Pratiques d'Aeronautique, the naval aviation test centre, at Saint-Raphael. He later commented, "it was the most interesting period of my time in the navy."
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