Aerial League of Australia, NSW Section

From Inventing aviation
Jump to navigation Jump to search


Organization names Aerial League of Australia : Aerial League of Australia, New South Wales Section
Entity type
Country Australia
City Sydney, New South Wales; flying ground established near Penrith Railway Station, 1910.
Affiliated with RAeCUK, FAI
Scope
Started aero 1909
Ended aero
Keywords
Key people
Wikidata id
  • Address: 74 Pitt Street, Sydney (1912); then ; 17 Grosvenor Street, Sydney (at least 1918-1919). Workshops and glider schools established at Prince Alfred Park and at Narraheen (1909); glider schools at Narraheen, Windsor, and Tuggeram Lakes (1911)

}} Following some informal steps over a period few weeks, the Aerial League of Australia held its inaugural meeting 28 Apr. 1909 at the Australia Hotel, Sydney. Its purposes included watching the latest achievements in aerial engineering, securing recognition for Australian efforts, awakening public attention to the grave danger of allowing foreign nations to excel in aerial navigation, and joining with the Aerial League of the British Empire in advocating that the Empire should secure the same supremacy in aerial navigation as it had enjoyed in the command of the sea. Originally founded as the Aerial League of Australia, the first aerial league in this nation, by early August 1909, as interest in this movement developed elsewhere, it was known as the Aerial League of Australia, New South Wales Section. By late August 1909, members were constructing three aeroplanes. At Its first annual meeting on 2 Dec. 1910; it was reported that there were 216 members in the New South Wales Section.

Major Charles Rosenthal and George A. Taylor had been selected beforehand to be honorary secreraries for the 28 April 1909 inaugural meeting; at the meeting, Lawrence Hargrave was voted its chair and soon thereafter Lord Dudley, the Governor General of Australia, consented to be its patron. At its second meeting on 19 May 1909, Alan Taylor, Lord Mayor of Sydney, was elected the first president, along with Commander Brownlow, Lieutenant-Colonel Holmes, J. W. Turner, G. M. Merivale, and Hargrave as vice presidents; Frank Taylor, auditor; Major Rosenthal, treasurer; and George A. Taylor, secretary. In 1910, a trophy of the Aerial League was awarded to Harry Houdini (Eric Weiss) for what was thought to be the first powered flight in Australia. On 18 Mar. 1910, Houdini made three successful flights in a Voisin Aeroplane at Digets Rest near Melbourne, Victoria. The flights ranged from 1 to 3 1/2 minutes.

On 8 Sept. 1909, the League announced that it would offer 5,000 pounds for a flying machine to be used for military purposes. The competition, open to a natural born Australian or naturalized British subject with not less than two years residence in Australia, was announced 11 Sept. 1909 by the Australian Defence Department. The offer was later withdrawn for lack of entrants.

  • Affiliated with RAeCUK, 1912 or earlier and with FAI, 1918 or earlier

Sources

  • Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales), 21 & 29 Apr. 1909, 2 May 1909, 13 & 25 Aug. 1909, and 3 Dec. 1910
  • Evening News (Sydney NSW), 21 & 29 Apr. 1909 and 20 May 1909
  • Queensland Times (Ipswich, Queensland), 2 Feb. 1911; 1913 Aviation Pocket-Book 160 (Jan. 1913)
  • 1918 Aviation Pocket-Book 273
  • 1919-1920 Aviation Pocket-Book 385 (1919)
  • Gibson, "Australia and Australians in Civil Aviation, An Index to Events" V.1, 25-29, 30-31 (1971)
  • Copley, "Australians in the Air," 9, 11 (1976)