The early years of flying were exciting and dangerous. Flying was thought to be so dangerous that one pioneer Australian aviator, C.J. De Garis, was banned by his company from continuing his flying experiments.
Planes were small and light and usually powered by one engine alone. If that engine gave out, the pilot was in serious trouble.
In spite of these difficulties, the pioneer aviators made many long and hazardous flights in their frail aircrafts.
Because of Australian's large size and its distance from the rest of the world, the development of travel by air was very important.
Some of the world's most famous early aviators were Australians. Some of these people included John Duigan, Charles Kingsford Smith, and a women called Lores Bonny. These pioneers opened our skies.
John Dugan was born in 1882 in the Victorian country town of Terang. John and his younger brother, Reginald, both became interested in gliding. They noted the early experiments with powered flight made by the Wright brothers and other overseas aviators.
John was sent to England to study electrical engineering and Mechanics. He also studied what was happening with engine-powered aeroplanes.
When John came back, he and Reginald built a double-winged glider with which they made a number of flights.
First Plane: In 1909 John began to build his first powered plane. With Reginald helping him, it took about a year to build. They used local timber, wire from an old piano and made metal fittings from steel bands with which his family baled their wool. The plane was powered by a 25 horsepower four-cylinder engine that had been built for them by a local engineering company.
On 16 July 1910, John managed to get his plane into the air for a few seconds, making a flight of about seven metres. This was the first flight to be made by an Australian-built powered aeroplane.
Stability: Although his plane got off the ground, he didn't have enough control of it to make a flight of any length. His plane was not very stable. He spent some months working to correct this and seeking the advice of other aviators.
More control: In October 1910 John Duigan managed to make a flight of nearly 200 metres with reasonable control of his aircraft.
By the following year, most of the problems with the first aircraft had been solved. John was able to make flights of about a kilometre, and Reginald made a flight of half a kilometres.
License: In 1912 John went to England and qualified for an aviator's license. He bought an engine there that had been specially built for use in aeroplanes.
Second Plane: Back in Australia, he built a second plane and powered it with his new engine. In 1913, while flying near Keilor in Victoria, John crashed the new plane. Although he was not badly hurt, this set back his flying experiments.
Military Cross: The following year, the first World War broke out. John served as a captain with the Australian Flying Corps. In 1918 he was awarded the Military Cross for his flying in France during the war.
John Duigan is important as our first pioneer in the area of powered flight. He was the first person to build and fly a powered plane in Australia.
Although he didn't join in the long flights and record-breaking attempts of later years, he kept up his interest in aviation. During the second World War he served with the Royal Australian Air Force. He died in 1951.
Charles Kingsford Smith is the most famous of all Australia's early aviators. He was born in Hamilton, Queensland, in 1897 and was brought up in Canada and Australia.
He joined the army when he was 18, and in 1917, he changed to the Royal Flying Corps. He flew with a fighter squadron in France and was awarded the Military Cross. Then he was wounded and gave up flying for the rest of the war.
Stunt pilot: After the war, Kingsford Smith went to America. Here he became a stunt pilot. He took people for joy rides and performed flying tricks for audiences. In 1921 he came back to Australia and joined the Western Australian Airways company. His job was to fly mail between Geralton and Derby in Western Australia.
C.T.P Ulm: He left Western Australia Airways to start a small flying company of his own. In 1926 he met C.P.T Ulm, the man who was to fly with him on his most famous journeys.
Kingsford Smith and Ulm wanted to make the first flight from America to Australia. This was a great challenge as there were few places to land to refuel and make repairs in the Pacific Ocean.
At first they could find no one to put up the money for their flight. To make people notice them, they flew all around Australia in half the time of the previous record. This made them well known as aviators. Two businessmen then put up the money for the Pacific crossing attempt.
Southern Cross: With the money, they went o America and bought a Fokker three-engined aeroplane. They named it Southern Cross.
They took off from California on 31 May 1928. On 9 June they landed in Brisbane, the first people to have flown across the Pacific. They had spent 83 hours and 11 minutes in the air. They were welcomed in Australia as Heroes.
Kingsford Smith set out to create more flying records. Many of his attempts were made with Ulm. In 1929 they broke the record for flying from Australia to England.
Atlantic Crossing: The next year they made the first east to west crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. They flew on to California from where they had started their Pacific crossing. This meant that they were the first to fly right around the world.
Kingsford Smith made many more flights during the next five years. He broke the record for flying from Australia to England once more, and reversed his most famous flight by flying the Pacific from Australia to America.
Knighthood: In 1932 Kingsford Smith was knighted for his services to aviation, which included founding the first Australian National Airway.
Missing: In November 1935, Kingsford Smith set out from Allahabad in India on the second leg of a flight from England to Australia. He had said this was to be his last overseas flight. He said: 'There'll be no turning back. There never is'.
He and his copilot were never seen again. It is believed now that they probably crashed near the coast of Burma, and that they were both killed in the crash. Searches were organised for the Lockheed plane, Lady Southern Cross, in which Kingsford Smith was flying, but it was never found.
Kingsford Smith, or Smithy as he was known all over Australia, like many other early aviators , had given his life in the service of aviation.
Most of the early major flying
records in Australia were set by men. This was partly because, at the
time, women were not encouraged to take up dangerous jobs like
flying. Also, a large number of men had gained their flying
experience in the Air Corps of the First World War which women could
not join. The first women to fly
around Australia was Lores Bonney who was born in South
Africa in 1897. She married an Australian and settled in
Brisbane. She learned flying in 1930, and in 1932 she flew
right around Australia by air over a period of about 6
weeks. In 1933 she created a
record by flying 1600 kilometres in one day. She followed
this by being the first women to fly solo from Australia to
England, and the first to fly from Australia to South
Africa.
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