SELECT CHRONOLOGY OF A CENTURY OF HEAVIER-THAN-AIR FLIGHT 1903 December 17. First flight by a powered heavier-than-air machine, at Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina, US. Aircraft: the Wright Flyer. Designed and built by Wilbur and Orville Wright. Pilot: Orville Wright. Distance: 36,5 m, Flying time: 12 seconds. Three other flights followed the same day, the last covering 260 m and lasting 59 seconds. 1906 November 12. First flight in Europe of a piloted and powered aeroplane. Bois de Boulogne, Paris, France. Aircraft: Santos Dumont 14bis. Designed, built and flown by Brazilian Alberto Santos Dumont, previously a leading airship pioneer. Distance: 220m. 1909 25 July. Louis Blériot successfully flies English Channel in his Blériot XI monoplane. 1909 World’s first woman pilot, Frenchwoman Mme La Baronne de la Roche, gained her pilot’s certificate – number 36 – in France. 1910 January. First powered flights in South Africa. Flown by Frenchman Albert Kimmerling in a Voisin biplane. Kimmerling had been invited to SA by the East London town council, with sponsorship from local engineering company Howard, Farrar, Robinson & Co. After his initial flights in East London, Kimmerling went on to make others in Johannesburg and Durban. All were of short duration. 1910 January. First flights in Egypt, by two British pilots in French Blériot XI monoplanes. 1910 March 10. World’s first night flight. By Emil Aubrun, in a Blériot XI, at Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1910 March 28. World’s first flight of a seaplane. Designed and flown by Frenchman Henri Fabre, at Martigues, near Marseilles, France. 1910 November 14. First aircraft take-off from a ship – cruiser USS Birmingham at anchor in Hampton Roads, Virginia, US – by pilot Eugene Ely in a Curtiss aircraft. 1911 January 18. First landing on a ship, cruiser USS Pennsylvania, also at anchor (in San Francisco Bay), also by Eugene Ely in a Curtiss. 1911 January. First South African aviator, John Weston (1873 to 1950) gains his pilot’s certificate in France. 1911 February 18. World’s first official air mail, in India, from Allahabad to Naini. 1911 May/June. Second aviator to be brought to SA, by the organisers of the Pretoria Festival Week, Belgian Joseph Christiaens, brought and flew two Bristol Boxkites in Pretoria and Johannesburg. 1911 John Weston returns to SA, with two ‘Weston Farman’ biplanes. He settled in Brandfort, bought Christiaens Boxkites and set up the John Weston Aviation Co., a non-profit company to promote aviation in this country. He makes demonstration flights in many SA towns and in Lourenço Marques, now Maputo, in Mozambique. 1911 October 23. Italy becomes the first country to use aeroplanes in war, in Libya, against Turkish forces. 1912 February 22. First time aeroplane exceeds 100 mph (161 km/h). At Pau, France. Pilot: Jules Vedrines. Aircraft: Deperdussin monoplane. 1912 African Aviation Syndicate, formed by Cecil Compton Paterson, Guy Livingston, and South African-born Evelyn Frederick Driver, to promote aviation in SA, brought a Blériot XI monoplane and Paterson’s self-designed Number 2 biplane to this country, and undertook demonstration flights in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Kimberley. The syndicate set up its headquarters at Alexanderfontein, near Kimberley, on land made available by De Beers. 1912 April. Paterson made first cross-country flight in SA, from Kimberley to Klerksdorp, in six stages. Distance: 336 km. Flying time: 4 h 42 min. 1912 September. African Aviation Syndicate liquidated. 1912 Following a visit to Europe to observe military manoeuvres, Union Defence Force Commandant-General Beyers recommended that SA train ten military pilots. 1913 May 10. SA Government Gazette published notice seeking volunteers for training as country’s first military pilots. There were hundreds of applicants. 1913 May 13. World’s first large, four-engined, aircraft flies, at St Petersburg, Russia. Sikosky ‘Bolshoi’ (The Great). Designed by Igor Sikorsky. 1913 Original ten SA military pilot volunteers receive initial flying training from Cecil Paterson at his flying school – the first in SA – in Kimberley. Nine graduate and are sent to the Military School in Bloemfontein. Six are then selected to complete their training with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC – the British Army’s then aviation wing) in England. 1913 September 23. First flight across the Mediterranean, from France to Tunisia. Pilot: Roland Garros. Aircraft: Morane-Saulnier monoplane. Distance: 453 miles. Flying time: 7 h 53 min. 1914 January 1. First scheduled aeroplane service by a company established as an airline. The Benoist Company, Florida, US. Pilot Anthony Jannus flew a passenger from St Petersburg, Florida, to Tampa, Florida, in a two-seat Benoist flying boat. 1914 July 30. First aeroplane flight across North Sea by Norwegian pilot Tryggve Gran in a Blériot monoplane. 1914 to 1918 First World War Global war spurs dramatic advances in technology, capabilities, and uses of aircraft. 1914 August. The five SA military pilots who successfully completed their training with the RFC were allowed to volunteer for service with the RFC. 1914 October 5. A German two-seater became the first aeroplane ever to be shot down by another, a machine-gun- armed Voisin two- seater of French Army Aviation squadron VB.24. 1915 January 29. Official establishment of the South African Aviation Corps (SAAC). First three SAAC pilots were GP Wallace, GS Creed and Kenneth van der Spuy. 1915 April. SAAC began operations in the then German South West Africa (SWA) (now Namibia) after the delivery of six French Henri Farman biplanes to Walvis Bay. The SAAC was under the command of Major Wallace and included Creed and Van der Spuy. The SAAC undertook reconnaissance and bombing missions against the German forces and had a dramatic impact on the campaign. SA commander and Prime Minister Louis Botha enthused “Now I can see for hundres of miles!” 1915 July. German forces in SWA surrender to SA forces. 1915 July. The first aircraft ever to be designed as a single-seat fighter, Germany’s Fokker E.1 monoplane, started operational trials over the Western Front. 1915 October. SAAC ceases to operate as a separate unit as personnel are dispersed to serve with RFC squadrons in other theatres. Major Wallace appointed to command RFC 26 Squadron in East Africa. 26 acquires Afrikaans motto:’‘n Wagter in die Lug’. 1915 December 12. World’s first all-metal aircraft, the Junkers J.1, flew in Germany. 1917 August 2. For the first time an aircraft landed on a ship which was under way at the time. The pilot was Squadron Commander EH Dunning Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS – the aviation wing of the Royal Navy), the aircraft was a Sopwith Pup fighter, and the ship, HMS Furious. Furious was subsequently converted into one of the first aircraft carriers. 1918 April 1. As a result of recommendations made by an Imperial Defence Committee headed by SA Premier General Jan Smuts regarding the more efficient defence of the UK from German Zeppelin and bomber attacks, on this day the RFC and RNAS were merged to form the Royal Air Force (RAF), the world’s first independent air force. 1918 July 22. Death in action of India’s first fighter ace, Lt Indra Lal ‘Laddie’ Roy RFC. Roy scored 10 kills. It is very difficult to ascertain who the first Black African or West Indian pilot was, as the British and French did not record colour or ethnicity of trainees. However, the first African American to become a pilot, and a fighter pilot, was Eugene Bullard, who successfully volunteered for pilot training while serving with the French Foreign Legion in the trenches. He flew exclusively with the French, the US Air Service not wanting to have a black pilot at that time (1917/18)! 1918 November 11. End of First World War. More than 3 000 South Africans had volunteered to serve as commissioned officers in the RFC, RNAS and RAF. Top SA fighter aces of the war were Captains Anthony Beauchamp-Proctor, VC, with 54 kills and Samuel Kinkead with between 35 and 40 (including between 5 and 10 while serving against the Bolsheviks in southern Russia in 1919). Both served with the RFC and RAF. 1919 April 6. Customs inspection of airline passengers’ luggage started at Brussels. 1919 June 14/15. First nonstop crossing of the North Atlantic in an aeroplane. Pilots: Britons Capt. John Alcock and Lt Arthur Whitten Brown. Aircraft: a converted Vickers Vimy bomber. Flying time: 16 h 27 min. 1919 August 28. The International Air Transport (originally, Traffic) Association (IATA) formed. 1920 February 1. This date is now regarded as the birthday of the South African Air Force (SAAF). See below. 1920 February 4/March 20. First flight from England to South Africa. Pilots: South Africans Lt-Col Pierre van Ryneveld and Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt – RAF rank equivalent to SAAF Captain) Christopher Quintin Brand. Took off from Brooklands Airport, accompanied by two RAF mechanics, Burton and Sherratt, in a Vimy named ‘Silver Queen’. Flew to Derna, Libya, where Burton was replaced by RAF Flight Sargeant E Newman. Then on the Korosko, Sudan, where the Silver Queen crashed on February 11 and was written off. Aircraft was replaced by a second Vimy, ‘Silver Queen II’, with which Van Ryneveld, Brand and crew left Cairo on February 22. Silver Queen II crashed on take-off at Bulawayo on March 6. Premier Smuts sent a DH.9 to Bulawayo and Van Ryneveld and Brand then flew this machine from there to Cape Town, arriving on March 20 at 1600. Flying time: 109 h 30 min. 1920 June. Van Ryneveld appointed Director of Air Services, back- dated to February 1. With this appointment, the SAAF came into existence, although it is not mentioned in any legislation until the 1923 Defence Act! As the SAAF replaced the SAAC, the new force continued the use of the Army rank titles employed by its predecessor, unlike all other major Commonwealth air forces, which adopted the new rank titles and insignia invented by the RAF.