Page 10 - David Coles Australian Military Aircraft Book Interior Sample

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The beginning of Military Aviation in Australia
Whether it was the geographical distance or the socio-economic make-up of Australia in the 1800s, up until the 1850’s there seemed to be little
interest in the aeronautical achievements being attained in Europe and North America. The first mention of aviation in Australia was The Atomic Ship, an elongated hydrogen balloon propelled by four airscrews, designed by Dr William Bland in 1851. While several attempts were made to fly a balloon during the 1850’s it was not until 1 February 1858 when William Dean made a 30km flight from Cremorne Gardens in Melbourne that avia- tion finally took off in the Australian psyche. While this flight stimulated some interest in aviation, but the next big ballooning event was not until the British Royal Engineers flew one of their balloons at Federation cele- brations in 1901. By this time, many Australian military personnel had been exposed to balloons being used for aerial surveillance in both the Sudan (1885) and South African (1899-1900) Wars, but no moves seemed to have been made to purchase this technology for the Australian Army at this time.
Even though Ballooning did not exactly gain the fervour it did in Europe, this did not mean that aerial experimentation was not being undertaken. On 12 November 1894, Lawrence Hargrave strung together four of his newly invented box kites and lifted himself 16ft into the air, thus becoming the first man in the world to achieve sustained manned heavier-than-air flight. Hargrave not only gave the world the ‘cellular’ kite, but his works also included curved aerofoils and the rotary engine; however, his greatest gift to flight was inspiring a whole generation of aviation pioneers, which included a young Australian man by the name of George Augustine Taylor. Taylor designed and built a Voisin style glider, complete with box-kite wings
and tail. With this aircraft, he became the first man in Australia to successfully conduct an untethered heavier-than-air flight when he made a 100m glide at Narrabeen Beech on 5 December 1909. On that same day, his wife Florence, became the first woman to fly a glider, covering just over 90m.
The flights made by the Taylors’ that day were conducted under the auspices of the ‘Aerial League of Australia’, a body that had been set up by George himself in April 1909 and counted in its membership none other than Lawrence Hargrave. This group became instrumental in the creation of military aviation, although it took some time to realise the dream. In June 1909, the league, via committee treasurer Major Charles Rosenthal, petition the Government to offer a prize of £5,000 to any Australian who could create an aircraft suitable for the military. The contest was announced on 8 September 1909, requesting the aircraft be ready by 31 Mar 1910, but no aircraft made the deadline; and only one, built by brothers John and Reg Duigan, got into the air (The aircraft made an initial ‘hop’ on 16 July 1910 but was not publicly shown until 3 May 1911).
While the competition did gain some results (such as a small contingent of men heading to Britain to lean to fly, including such names as Bert Hinkler, Harry Hawker, Horace ‘Horrie’ Miller and Eric Harrison), it was obvious to the Government that if the Austra- lian Army was to obtain an aviation capability, it would have to go overseas to purchase the aircraft. It was at this time that a New Zealander by the name of Joseph Hamond, who worked as a display salesman for the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company (later known as Bristol), entered the scene. Hamond, along with his mechanic and back-up display pilot Lesley F. MacDonald, brought a Boxkite aircraft to Australia in
AUSTRALIAN MILITARY AIRCRAFT