Early Australian Aviation

In 1851 Dr William Bland designed a 90 foot, semi-rigid airship, to be powered by a steam engine capable of carrying a payload of 1 ½ tons, inflated with hydrogen and named "Atomic Ship" a model and drawings were displayed at the Crystal Palace in London in 1852, and at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1855.

On 15 December 1856 M Pierre Maigre commenced inflating a hot air balloon in front of  crowd of 5-6,000 people, who had paid to watch the flight, however after reaching full inflation and Maigre had sat on the framework the balloon failed to rise due to a tangled rope which then caused much of the hot air to be lost.  The crowd surged past the few police attending and jumped barriers, Maigre's hat was knocked off, and fearing his head would be next, he ran from the site, witnesses claimed up to 4,000 boys and youths pursued the unfortunate aeronaut, who managed to hide in Government House, while the crowd set fire to the balloon and created a bonfire from the tent and seats.

The first flight in Australia by balloon was in Victoria on 1 February 1858, the balloon was constructed by H Coxwell in Tottenham in the UK, and imported by George Coppin, manager of Melbourne's Theatre Royal, it was a 40 ft diameter balloon of varnished fabric with a capacity of 31,000 cu ft of gas. It was partly inflated by the Melbourne Gas Company and then transfered by horse and cart to Cremourne Gardens near Richmond where inflation was completed. A valve was leaking and there was only sufficient lift for one person, William Dean who had previous experience lifted off at 5.52pm and about 6.30pm descended somewhere near Heidelberg. On 15 February 1858 at 6.48pm Dean ascended to an estimated 10,000 ft, and later decended onto the road between Collingwood and Brunswick Stockade.  On 25 March 1858 Dean and Brown made the first ascent at night, lit fireworks beneath the passenger "car", ascended to an estimated altitude of 10,000 ft, travelled 40 or 50 miles in various directions as the wind shifted and finally decended in Springvale.

Dean and Brown made their first flight in Sydney on 13 December 1858 taking off at 5pm watched by 7,000 people, heading north across the Harbour and landing in Neutral Bay.

On 7 January 1871, Thomas Gale who had complete 50 flights in Europe, lifted off from Victoria Park in Sydney at 4.20pm, in his balloon "The Young Australian" , which was 72 feet high, and 112 feet in circumference, and has a gas capacity of 32,000 cu ft. The balloon carried Gale, two passengers and 120 lb of ballast in a northerly direction entering clouds at about 13,000 ft, a precautionary landing was made in Delange's Bay after about two hours flight.

On 12 January 1878 a Montgolfier hot air balloon was inflated at the Domain in Sydney, attached to a winch with sufficient rope for over 1000 feet to allow two passengers to be carried aloft. After it had risen several feet one of the would be passengers jumped out, causing the balloon to rise more rapidly than the winch or ground handlers could manage, the rope snapped with the unexpected velocity and the remaining passenger James Stewart drifted north over Sydney Harbour until a wind change returned him to the southern side of the harbour. The balloon eventually descended into a tree in the grounds of Government House with Stewart surviving the landing with a few scratches.

Henri L'Estrange inflated his balloon "Aurora" at the Melbourne Agricultural showgrounds on 14 April 1879 and lifted off at 3.40pm, rising rapidly to an estimated 9,000 ft, where owing to a miscalculation of gas expansion, the side of the balloon ruptured. a silk parachute attached to the centre of the balloon opened, and despite splits in several places slowed his decent while he jettisoned any objects in the basket, and landed in a Fir tree at the rear of Government House, this is the first record of survival by a parachute in Australia.

J.T. Williams had been conducting private parachuting trials and undertook his first public demonstration on 8 December 1888,  utilising Harry Henden's balloon "The Gem" he ascended at 6pm and reached a height of 4-5,000 ft before pulling the balloons release valve and then jumping from the basket and decending via parachute, while the balloon slowly deflated and landed in the Paramatta River undamaged.

Many other balloon and parachute demonstrations occurred in the remaining years of the 19th century including a well developed and regular display by V P Taylor, who was known publicly by the stage name of Captain Penfold, the "Australian Aeronaut".

In January 1901 the Balloon Section of the Royal Engineers of the British Army displayed the first military balloon in Australia as part of Federation celebrations at the Sydney Agricultural Grounds.

While balloons and parachutes were refined and publicly demonstrated in Australia and around the world by the turn of the century, and man's first powered flight was only 3 years away, experimentation and research in relation to lift and flying surfaces had been underway for almost twenty years by Lawrence Hargrave. Later to be hailed as the Father of Australian Aviation, Hargrave was carrying out experiments with box kites and developing curved flight surfaces and various compressed air and rotary engines. He presented his first aeronautical paper "The Trochoided Plane" to the Royal Society on 6 August 1884, in December 1885 he exhibited a 7 ft span Ornithopter that flew 120 ft before hitting a fence, and reported in December 1887 that an improved model had flown 270 ft horizontally.

During 1888-89 he turned his attention to propulsion methods using rubber bands and then conceived the idea of a rotary engine, producing a prototype, and a second model that could produce 457 rpm, this work was later used by the French to develop the Gnome Rotary aircraft engine.  Hargrave believed in the free flow and sharing of scientific information and studies, he did not patent any of his ideas, and freely corresponded with other would-be aviators overseas including the Brazilian, Santos Dumont, who was to gain fame in France as a pioneer aviator. 

On 12 November 1894 at Stanwell Park near Sydney, Hargrave used four boxkites to lift himself 16 feet off the ground  in a 21 mile per hour wind, and from 1897 confined his experiments to lifting powers of curved and natural surfaces.

While Hargrave did not develop a viable flying machine, his work was recognised internationally by others.  Octave Chanute, a contemporary of the Wright Brothers, in his authoritative book “Progress in Flying Machines” written in 1894, stated that “if there is to be one man more than other who deserves to succeed in flying through the air, that man is Lawrence Hargrave of Sydney, Australia.”  

Although not acknowledged by the Wright Brothers as having any influence on their work, it is known they were heavily influenced by Chanute's own glider work, and Hargrave’s work is evident to see in the " box-like" structures and rotary engines, used by many of the pioneering aircraft, developed in the USA, U.K. and Europe, including Chanute's own gliders. 

Despite Hargrave's pioneering work all those years prior to the successful flight of the Wright Brothers’ aircraft at Kittyhawk, North Carolina, U.S.A., in 1903, it was the better part of a decade past before Australians took to the air in a similar fashion.   

George Taylor aided Hargrave in his later experiments and went on to develop a biplane glider in which he carried out a number of controlled flights over a distance of two hundred and fifty metres at Narrabeen Beach in Sydney  on 5 December 1909 and should be remembered as the first Australian aviator to achieve controlled heavier-than-air flight, his wife was the first woman to make a flight on that same day.  It is unfortunate that his intentions to power his glider with a motor were abandoned. 

In 1909, an Aerial League was formed in N.S.W., Queensland and Victoria.  This body offered ₤5,000 for an Australian-made flying machine and the Australian government, mindful of the military possibilities of such a machine, undertook to provide the ₤5,000, stipulating that the machine, in addition to being made in Australia, had to be able to take off and land safely without special launching apparatus, carry two people, have a speed of not less than 20 miles per hour and carry enough fuel to remain in action for not less than 5 hours.  Despite entries/designs being received from France, England, the U.S.A., Switzerland and Russia, plus entries from all parts of Australia, the government declared them unsuitable and decided to investigate aircraft that were being developed overseas.  

Harry Houdini, the celebrated ‘escapologist’, was to visit Australia on a theatrical tour, so the Aerial League undertook to invite him to bring his Viosin biplane with him, mindful of the publicity such a flight would generate in their attempts to promote aviation.  Before his arrival, several aircraft were imported to Australia from Europe and America, the close proximity of their initial flights or attempts at same, combined with sometimes dubious newspaper reports, have clouded the issue.  A Mr. Defries attempted to fly an imported Bleriot at Sydney’s Vic. Park racecourse in December 1909 and was reported to have ‘hopped’ the aircraft off the ground.  Another attempt a few days later led to a crash, after which he took no further part in proceedings. 

By March 1910, Houdini had his aircraft at Diggers Rest, outside Melbourne, along with Ralph Banks, an American, who had brought a Wright Flyer down from Sydney.  Banks was determined to beat Houdini into the air and attempted a flight on 1^st March, only to have a sharp gust of wind cause his aircraft to dive into the ground after take off, smashing it completely; Banks escaped with minor injuries. 

Houdini’s other competitor was a Bleriot monoplane, which had been purchased by an Adelaide businessman who had visited Europe and England in the hope of finding an aircraft capable of being demonstrated and sold in Australia.  While he was in England, the French flier, Louis Bleriot had flown from France to Dover in England, creating a storm of controversy about the vulnerability of England to an Armada of flying machines and gained himself, and his aircraft, a great measure of excellent publicity.  Mr. Jones, the Adelaide businessman concerned, recognised the achievement of Bleriot and his aircraft and paid ₤1,000 in advance, for a Bleriot type XI monoplane, powered by a 24hp Anzini rotary engine.  This aircraft, an advanced type for the time, employed primary flight controls, which would be recognisable today.  A control column was used with a series of levers and cranks to “warp” or alter the shape of the wing, in order that the amount of lift developed by the wing to be increased or decreased, a rudder bar operated by the pilot’s feet, allowed the aircraft to veer right or left, and a forward or rearward movement of control column would cause the nose rise or fall in flight. 

The Bleriot arrived in South Australia and Mr. Jones engaged an engineer, Bill Wittber, to assemble and rig the aircraft.  Bill’s ability as an engineer and his interest in aviation, wetted by such magazines as “Flight”, made him an excellent choice for the job.  Assisted by Fred Custance, the machine was assembled and displayed in John Martin’s store in Rundle Street, Adelaide.  From there it moved to Bolivar, a country town outside Adelaide, where the first attempts at flying it were to be made.  At this point, none of those involved had ever flown an aircraft!  The Bleriot manual was consulted carefully and on 13^th March, the aircraft was run around the paddock with Wittber at the controls.  The machine struck a tussock, lurched into the air and after about 15 metres, landed.  Whilst it was only a short distance and Wittber never claimed it as a flight, it was landed without damage.  On the morning of 17^th March, 1910, Custance is believed to have taxied the aircraft around the same paddock several times.  It is claimed that he later was able to make a successful take-off and achieved a short flight, however, another attempt resulted in the aircraft apparently stalling and crashing causing extensive damage to the propellor, undercarriage and wheels.  Subsequently, it was returned to Adelaide for repairs and was later destroyed by fire while in storage that winter.  (Unfortunately some confusion remains in respect of these claims but they may well represent the first flights to take place in Australia.) 

While little publicity attended the efforts in South Australia, those of Harry Houdini at Diggers Rest received wide reporting.  Houdini had a full understanding of the value of publicity and there were a number of would-be aviators, including Banks, present at Diggers Rest for his initial flights and his efforts were widely reported in the newspapers of the day. 

Following the advice of his mechanic, a Mr. Brassac, Houdini waited until the 18^th March, when weather conditions were perfect and taxied the aircraft to test the engine and controls.  Then he opened the throttle, the engine roared and the aircraft surged toward a clump of trees and then soared skyward and stayed aloft for a minute. He landed safely and went on to fly on two or more occasions that day and on the 21^st March flew for seven minutes.  Undoubtedly, Houdini had mastered the ability to pilot an aircraft in controlled powered flight and would go on to give further demonstrations at Rose Hill in Sydney.  Houdini’s Voisin aircraft resembled an enlarged powered version of the box kites, which Hargrave had experimented with some fifteen years earlier.  Powered by a 60-hp ENV engine the Voisin was a type that amassed considerable flying hours in Europe, and while, perhaps, not as advanced as the Bleriot monoplane, was certainly capable of sustained flight in the hands of an experienced pilot. 

Interest in aviation proceeded apace with important aircraft such as the Duigan pusher biplane being locally designed by John Duigan, and constructed by John and his brother Reg.  This aircraft, constructed of Australian components including a motor designed and built in Melbourne, was subjected to rigorous testing by Duigan before any attempt at flight.  His first short flight of 24 feet was achieved on 16 July 1910 at the family property "Spring Plains", Mia Mia (between Kyneton and Heathcote, Victoria), was the first flight of an Australian designed and built aircraft.

Born in Terang Victoria in 1882, John Duigan had studied Electrical and Motor Engineering at Finsbury College in London and returned to Australia by 1908. The powered aircraft had been developed from experience learned by the brothers in building and testing a tethered glider at "Spring Plains" in 1908-09, a design similar to a 'Wright' layout. His powered aircraft design was however significantly different to his glider and more of similar layout to the French 'Farman' biplane. Duigan prepared his own plans and specifications, and in a large shed on the family property, constructed the frame of the plane from red pine and mountain ash.

The aircraft was some 10 metres in length, with a wingspan of seven metres, was powered by a  four-cylinder air cooled engine built by Tillaroo Motors to Duigan’s design. The Duigan pusher biplane went through a number of modifications to improve its performance including conversion of its engine to water cooling and a larger cylinder bore. A longer flight of about 100 yards was achieved on 30 September 1910 and again even further at 196 yards  on 7 October 1910.  It was of Australian design and construction as required by the government and, but for a misunderstanding by Duigan of the requirements of the Government & Aerial League competition, may well have qualified for the ₤5,000 on offer.  

In January 1911, Duigan demonstrated his plane to newspaper reporters at "Spring Plains", and the following April he made several public flights before a crowd of 1000 at the Bendigo Racecourse.

John Duigan in 1912 travelled to England, to obtain his pilots licence, and commissioned a tractor biplane from A.V. Roe to his own specifications, known as the Avro-Duigan Biplane which he later sold. He returned to Australia and in 1913 built a second tractor biplane with his brother at Ivanhoe Victoria, using the ENV engine from the 1912 tractor biplane, and later joined the AFC and flew in combat in France.

Duigan’s achievement is all the more remarkable for the fact that he had never seen or flown an aircraft previously and had little technical information with which to work. His first design was based on little more than a postcard of the Wright Flyer, and a copy of papers from Sir Hiram Maxim of the UK. With the exception of the engine and propeller, each component was made by Duigan and his brother in a rudimentary workshop on the farm, the aircraft made many flights and is now under the care of the Museum of Victoria. 

Several other would-be aviators built aircraft without notable success.  Perhaps among the most significant was a monoplane built by Messrs. Porter and Robbins of Albury; their aircraft was powered by an engine built by Mr Aubry Locke of Armidale and was tested outside Albury.  The “Albury Banner” reported that the aircraft had flown, although this was never confirmed. 

More aircraft were imported into Australia in 1910 hoping to attract Government contracts, Gaston Cugnet was sent from France by Bleriot for the possibility of establishing a permanent aviation business in Australia, and undertook his first flight, for a duration of 7 minutes and reaching a height of 200 feet, at Altona in Victoria on 15 November 1910, and attempted a further flight at the MCG on 3 December 1910, but the aircraft was badly damaged when windy conditions caused it to crash into the adjoining tennis courts.

 New Zealander J. J. Hammond, employed by the British and Colonial Aeroplane Co.(Bristol), accompanied two Bristol Box Kites to Australia, giving demonstration flights in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, and offering the Box Kite aircraft for sale from the factory at ₤1000 and 50HP Gnome engines for ₤50. He made his first Victorian flight at Altona Bay on 18 February 1911 for 31 minutes and up to a height of 3000 feet. 

On 20 February 1911 He flew the first cross country flight between towns in Australia from Altona Bay to Geelong in Victoria, covering 40 miles in 55 minutes, returning the next day.  On  28 February at Altona Bay, Victoria, he undertook the first powered passenger flight in Australia, taking his mechanic Coles on a 7½ minute flight, and then took Mrs Hammond on a 12½ minute flight, the first woman passenger flight in Australia.  On 2 March 1911, again at Altona Bay, Hammond took J.Bailleau as the first paying passenger in powered flight in Australia covering 12 miles at 700 feet, while on 26 March 1911 Hammond flew with his assistants L.F. McDonald and Coles both as passengers to demonstrate the weight carrying performance of the Box Kite and gave many demonstration flights thereafter in Melbourne and Sydney.

In England, Lt Arthur Longmore of the Royal Navy, born at St Leonards, NSW, became the first Australian to formally learn to fly, gaining licence No. 72 on 25 April 1911.  It had become obvious by this time that considerable skill was required to pilot these early aircraft and as a result, in May 1911, mechanic friends Harry Busteed, Harry Kauper and Harry Hawker, known as "the three Harrys", all went to England to study aviation and learn to fly.

 Kauper later became works manager for Sopwiths, in charge of 3800 employees turning out 45 planes a week. An inventive genius, he is best known for the patented Sopwith-Kauper interrupter gear which synchronized the firing of a machine-gun through a rotating aeroplane propeller. First used in April 1916, 3950 were fitted to Sopwith planes during the war.

Harry Busteed of Melbourne, Victoria became the second Australian to obtain a licence receiving No. 94 on 13 June 1911, while Eric Harrison of Castlemaine, Victoria became the third Australian to obtain a licence receiving No. 131 on 1 September 1911,  all achieved in England.

John Duigan also went to England in 1912 and on 27 April 1912 he became the fourth Australian in England to be awarded a pilot’s certificate No. 211 issued by the Royal Aero Club, and later on 17 September 1912 while still in England, Harry Hawker was awarded pilot's certificate No. 297.

One of Hammonds' Box Kites was sold to a Sydney dentist, William E. Hart, in September 1911 and after ground instruction by McDonald, Hart achieved his first solo flight on 2nd November 1911.  Between 9 and 16 November 1911 Hart was tested under the supervision of the Aerial League of Australia and was issued with An Aerial League Certificate, and later received Royal Aero Club Licence No. 199 dated 26 March 1912 based on that November 1911 testing by the Aerial League. Thus Hart became the first person to be issued a licence in Australia, and the fourth Australian to qualify for a licence overall.

Hart established Australia's first Aviation School on 3 January 1912 in Penrith NSW, and later was granted permission to operate on the Ham Common, in Richmond NSW (the site of the present RAAF Base). In April 1912 American "Wizard" Stone challenged Hart to an race and on 29 June 1912 the first Air Race in Australia was held from the Surrey Football Ground near Botany to Parramatta Park NSW with Stone flying his Metz Bleriot and Hart flying his Boxkite and winning the race by covering the distance in 23 minutes and 53 seconds while Stone lost his way and landed at Lakemba NSW.

On 4 September 1912 Hart was seriously injured when test flying a two seat monoplane he had built to the design F E Sandford at Richmond, and Hart announced his retirement from aviation and his intention to resume his profession of Dentistry.  This location was later used as a flying school by the French aviator, Monsieur Maurice Guillaux, among whose notable achievements was a 1914 flight between Melbourne and Sydney in his Bleriot carrying about 25kg of mail – some 1785 people paying one shilling (10 cents) to send a postcard by Australia’s first airmail.  This 1000 kilometre flight in 9 hours and 35 minutes established a record for the longest airmail flight in the world at that time – it was also the longest flight that had been made in the Southern Hemisphere.

Other Australian's to travel to England over this period and gain pilot's licences were;  Charles Lindsay-Campbell of Queensland (No. 220, 4 June 1912), Sydney Pickles of NSW (No. 263, 30 July 1912), Dr David Stodart of Victoria (No. 321, 15 October 1912), Vincent Taylor "Capt Penfold" (No. 376, 17 December 1912) Edwin Prosser (No. 526,  18 June 1913) and Andrew Badgery of NSW (No. 717, 22 December 1913)
 
The military board began moves to establish a Flying Corps and placed an order for two British Aircraft Factory BE2s and two Deperdussin monoplanes for the fledgling corps.  Ultimately the Central Flying School was established at Point Cook, Victoria, its first flight took place on 1 March 1914, and the first pilot’s course was completed in November 1914 consisting of Williams, White, Mertz and Manwell..  

On 13 January 1914, Moorabbin born Harry Hawker, and mechanic Harry Kauper returned to Australia from the UK where Hawker was chief test pilot for the Sopwith Company, and bought with them a two seat Sopwith Tabloid.  The aircraft was taken to the CLC Motor Company in Elsternwick where it was assembled and tested before Hawker took off from New Street on 27 January and after a 20 minute flight landed in the grounds of Government House to visit the Governor General. On 7 February Hawker provided paying passenger flights and flying displays at Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne, with between 25-30,000 spectators, while on 11 February 1914 the first member of Cabinet to make a flight was Senator E Millen, Minister for Defence, Lt Harrison was also taken for a flight.

On 8 April 1914 Maurice Guillaux from France arrived in Sydney with his Beriot, on 20 April he flew for 26 minutes duration to test his aircraft, and made the first "loop the loop" in Australia. At Victoria Park on 2 May 1914 he flew a display for an estimated 60,000 spectators, and on 16 July 1914 he departed Flemington in Victoria carrying 1785 letters and arrived in Sydney on 18 July to complete Australia's first aerial mail between capital cities.

On his return to England in June 1914, Hawker developed a method of recovering from a tail-spin which became standard training practice. In June he also completed a record twelve loops in succession in a Tabloid.

With the clouds of war gathering in the latter part of 1914, the days of civil aviation and experimentation were numbered.  Soon after the outbreak of war, civil flying was seriously restricted, with only a few exceptions.  It was military flying and the training of pilots with consequent evolving of aircraft for wartime purposes, which led the development of aviation over the next five years.