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vEtERANS tAlES

General Jan Smuts and the be operated with funding by De Beers.
South African Air Force Hundreds of young men applied, from
which ten were chosen to undergo flying
The South African Air Force, while offi- training. Patterson was to be paid a sum
cially nearly two years younger than the of £150 for each pilot that qualified. The
Royal Air Force, actually has roots that aircraft used was a Patterson No.2 Bi-
trace back to 1912, when Brigadier Gen- plane, and it lasted just long enough to
eral Christiaan Beyers was Commandant undertook a trip to Europe, to witness qualify five of the young men before, with
General of the fledgling Union Defence military manoeuvres in Switzerland, Patterson at the controls and a young
Force. As we probably know, the Boers France, Germany and England. General Ken van der Spuy the pupil, it ran out of
went into battle on horse back which Smuts gave Beyers very specific instruc- vertical separation and dashed itself to
they’d done with great success some 10 tions prior to his departure to visit the smithereens on the ground. Both Pater-
years before, and indeed many times British Army’s aviation school on Salis- son and van der Spuy survived, van der
before that. As Willem Steenkamp de- bury Plain to “obtain as many details as Spuy going on in later years to become a
scribed it, in good times the Boer looked possible for a guide in establishing a mil- major general and towards the end of his
after his horse, and in bad times he ate it! itary aviation school in South Africa on life the oldest living pilot on the planet.
a small and economic This was not the only accident as it would
seem that the Patterson Bi-Plane was
scale”.
prone to catastrophic side slips.
Beyers returned to The five pilots did not have much time
Pretoria much en- before they were deployed. In 1914, Gen-
thused about what he eral Botha invaded German South West
had seen, particularly Africa, this done at the request of London
regarding the use of to neutralise Walvis Bay and Swakop-
aircraft in conflicts. mund as shipping ports. Our five airmen,
He said that the use who had in the meantime been seconded
of aircraft should be a to the Royal Flying Corps were recalled
great saving in horses
Times were changing however. Motor ve- and men. He foresaw great things for the from England for this expedition. Techni-
hicles were becoming ever more evident, use of aircraft in future operations. cians were obtained from the mines and
and it became clear that the horse as the hurriedly trained in rudimentary avionics
ultimate fighting instrument had its days Sadly, Beyers never lived to see his proph- and aircraft maintenance. The South
numbered. ecy realised, as he joined the “Rebellie” at African Aviation Corps was despatched
the time of the outbreak of World War I, to South West Africa with the five pilots
In 1911, the age of aircraft arrived in and drowned while attempting to escape under command of Major Wallace and
South Africa when a London based group the soldiers he had formerly commanded. with new steel-framed Henri Farman
named the African Aviation Syndicate F27’s, 12 of which had been purchased
Ltd arrived in South Africa to “promote In 1913, the Government Gazette pub- from France.
the science and practice of aviation in lished an advert
South Africa”. The company arrived in inviting applica-
Cape Town accompanied by two pilots, tions for “officer
Cecil Compton-Patterson and Evelyn aviators” to form
Driver from Pietermaritzburg as well as the nucleus of the
a French Bleriot aircraft and interestingly South African Avi-
a South African built Paterson bi-plane. ation Corps, to be
The first mail delivery by air took place founded in terms of
at this time in the Cape, with the Bleriot the Defence Article
having this honour. 19(2) of 1912. This
was in response to
These intrepid airmen gave a number of the establishment
displays at horse racing tracks, watched of the Paterson
apparently by a number of UDF officers. Aviation Syndi-
cate in Kimberley,
The following year, 1912, General Beyers an enterprise to

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