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Aviation History
1910
1910 - 0076.PDF
(/UGHT JANUARY 29, 1910. FIRST FLIGHT IN AUSTRALIA. Mr. Colin Defries just starting for the first aeroplane flight in Australia, on his Wright flyer, from the Victoria Park racecourse, Sydney, N.S.W., on December 9th last. ON December 9th, at the Victoria Park Racecourse, Sydney, N.S.W., Mr. Colin Defries, as we recorded at the time, accomplished the first flight ever made on an aeroplane in Australia, although a heavy S.W. gale was blowing at the time. Further particulars and photographs are now to hand from Mr. D. C. Defries, the young aviator's—he is twenty-five years of age—father. The aeroplane—a Wilbur Wright—which was mounted on a superstructure carried on three pneumatic wheels (instead of going off from the starting platform usual with these machines), rose to a height of about 35 ft., and covered about a mile in i| mins., when the aviator had to come to earth as the motor was performing badly, due, it was found, to faulty sparking- plugs. The event created a lot of excitement, and there was a large crowd on the ground. On the following day another short flight was accomplished, when Mr. Defries took up a passenger—Mr. C. S. Magennis, a well-known Australian mining engineer—and although a long flight was again impossible on account of the engine not running perfectly, enough was done to prove his complete mastery of the aeroplane. Mr. Colin Defries was educated at St. Paul's College, at Darmstadt, and University College, London, and received his practical engineering training at the works of Messrs. Bruce, Peebles, and Co., Edinburgh. Previous to going to Australia, where he is sole agent for several well-known motor cars, he had made a considerable reputation in the motor world, and amongst other races drove in the Mr. Colin Defries in the pilot's seat of his Wright machine. This shows the way in which Mr. Defries covered one of the support ing wires to prevent himself getting damaged in the event of an accident. Grand Prix and Kaiserpreis in 1907, and on each occasion was the only Englishman who finished. AeC.F. Pilote-Aviateurs. UP to date, the Aero Club of France have issued twenty-eight pilote-aviateur certificates, as per the following list, which gives the number of the certificates and the name of the machine on which the qualifying flights were made :— 1. Bleriot (Bleriot); 2. Curtiss (Curtiss); 3. Delagrange (Voisin), since deceased ; 4. Esnault-Pelterie (R.E.P.); 5. II. Farman (Henry Farman) ; 6. M. Farman (Maurice Farman); 7. Gobron (Voisin); 8. De Lambert (Wright); 9. Latham (Antoinette); 10. Paulhan (Voisin); 11. Rougier (Voisin); 12. Santos-Dumont (Santos-Dumont); 13. Tissandier (Wright); 14. O.Wright (Wright); 15. W. Wright (Wright); 16. D. Bunau-Varilla (Voisin); 17. Leblanc (Bleriot); 18. Mamet (Bleriot); 19. Metrot (Voisin); 20. Prince Bibesco (Bleriot); 21. Aubrun (Bleriot); 22. Balsan (Bleriot); 23. Rolls (Wright); 24. Mortimer Singer (H. Farman); 25. Molon (Bleriot); 26. Bregi, Henri (Voisin); 27. J. de Lesseps (BleYiot) ; 28. C. Grahame-White (Bleriot). It will be seen that nine were secured on Bleriot machines, seven on Voisin, five on Wright, two on Henry Farman, and one each on Antoinette, Curtiss, R.E.P., Santos-Dumont, and Maurice Farman. 72
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