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Q: Aircraft History ( Answered 3 out of 5 stars,   0 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Aircraft History
Category: Reference, Education and News > Teaching and Research
Asked by: pa28_jockey-ga
List Price: $70.00
Posted: 08 Aug 2003 04:44 PDT
Expires: 07 Sep 2003 04:44 PDT
Question ID: 241341
What contributions have Australians made to the development of
aircraft and their use, and the aircraft industry ?  I am looking for
not only record-breaking flights during the early years of aircraft
development but more recent and relatively unknown contributions. 
Most texts seem to have lots of stuff about record-breaking flights
early on but little about more recent
achievements (ie: past 50 years) and very little of any achievements
recently.  Point form answers with references will do.  I need an
answer within the next two weeks.
Answer  
Subject: Re: Aircraft History
Answered By: techtor-ga on 08 Aug 2003 10:58 PDT
Rated:3 out of 5 stars
 
Hello Pa28_jockey,
I looked around the Internet for any signifant item in Australian
aviation that was influential in the world, and I'll list what I found
below:

It seems that Australia's greatest modern contribution to aviation is
the black box, the flight data recorder which has been invaluable in
solving air crash problems, and it is the brainchild of an Australian:
DSTO - The Black Box: An Australian Contribution to Air Safety
http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/corporate/history/jubilee/blackbox.html
- Dr. Darvid Warren of Melbourne thought of the idea of a flight
recorder to help discover crash causes.

Black Box article at Inventors section of About.com
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blblackbox.htm

Black Box Recorder history at Questacon.com
http://www.questacon.edu.au/html/black_box_recorder.html


Flight achievements:
Gaby Kennard : Australian Pioneer Aviatrix - first Australian woman to
fly around the world solo in 1989
http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/gaby_kennard_bio.html

Two Australians with recent records in private flying - one in a
homemade plane:
http://www.users.senet.com.au/~wil/prifly.html
- Johanson Jon: "Twice did a solo Round World flight in a RV light
plane made by himself. For a trained midwife that's pretty good!"
- Fran West: "First woman pilot (and first South Australian pilot) to
fly around the coast of mainland Australia and Tasmania in a Cessna
172."

Features on the Australian Flying Corps - Oswald Watt Medal Awards
http://www.australianflyingcorps.org/mkiii/afc_feature_watt_medal.htm
- CR Canning, Esq. - "For the most brilliant performance in flying his
own amateur constructed aircraft from Melbourne to London and return
in the course of which he established a number of FAI world class
records." Award received in 1976.


There are inspiring stories of Australians who survived horrific
accidents and were disabled because of them, but after amazing
recoveries, they took to the skies. They seem to be among the most
inspiring stories of tragedy survivors who later on flew or flew
again:

Allana Arnot biography
http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/allana_arnot_bio.html
- Survived a 1990 plane crash where four perish out of six perished;
became a paraphlegic; taught herself to walk and fly planes again;
currently director of Rotor-Lift Helicopters
( http://www.rotorlift.com.au/default.htm ), a helicopter training and
transport service in Tasmania.

Janine Lee Shepherd, AM (1964- ), Australian Pioneer Aviatrix
http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/janine_shepherd_bio.html
- Hit by a truck on the road and became paralyzed; learned to walk
again and took up flying lessons, gaining her pilot's license and
instructor's license later.


Aviation History preservation:
From my personal knowledge, Mitchell, Australia also keeps the only
German Bf 109 still in its original paint scheme, never repainted
since the war:
Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6/U4/R3, WNr.163824
http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/luftcambg_2.htm

Another World War 2 plane preserved in Australia is "Black X", an Me
262 (one of the first jets to be used in war):
The History of "Black X"
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~fiveds/history.html


Aviation Industry:
Australian Aviation History - 1990s to present
http://users.chariot.net.au/~theburfs/aahistpage7.html#century
- "In 993, Aerospace Technologies Australia (ASTA) won the Boeing
Group's prestigious Major Outside Production Supplier of the Year
award over suppliers from 31 countries, specifically for its
production of the rudder assembly for the Boeing 777 widebody twin.
ASTA had been building components for Boeing airliners since 1970."
This shows that Australia is a major player in the aircraft
manufacturing industry, though in a behind-the-scenes manner.

Aviation Australia - Aviation Industry in SE Asia
http://www.aviationaustralia.net.au/about/se_asia.asp
- "Arguably Qantas is the leading full service airline in the world
today largely due to sound management during the last decade that
enabled the airline to minimize the effects of the Asian Economic
Crisis and September 11, and to also capitalize on the collapse of
Ansett."


Old time contributions:
Australian Aviation Pioneers, 1850-2000 - Note Lawrence Hargrave
http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/biography1.html#hargrave
- Australian Lawrence Hargrave probably could be hailed as one of the
fathers of flight. He invented the box kite, which was a basis for the
Wright Brothers' aircraft.

Charles Edward Kingsford Smith - brief biography
http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/ksmith.htm
- Pioneer of long distance air travel in Australia
- Disappeared on his last journey


Other sources:
Gawler Aviation and Military museum - explains a little about
Australia's contribution to the World War 2 air war
http://www.gammsa.com.au/about.html

Famous Australians in aviation history
http://www.geocities.com/pentapod2300/name/ke04001.htm

Australian Aviation History Pages
http://users.chariot.net.au/~theburfs/aahistpage1.html

Aviation History, Australia - Contributions from Australians to World
Aviation
http://www.users.senet.com.au/~wil/avhis.html

AusNews - Iraq - Australia's contribution to Global Operations Update
Briefing
http://ausissues.com/go/newsInformation/national/showNews/0/5744

World War 1 Australia Aces
http://www.skalman.nu/worldwar1/aces-au.htm

World War 2 Australia Aces
http://math.fce.vutbr.cz/safarik/ACES/aces1/austral2.html

Women Aviation Pioneers of Australian and New Zealand Skies 1900 -2000
http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/biography3.html


I hope this information serves your purposes. If you need any more,
let me know.

Google Search Strings used:
australia contribution aviation
australian aviator history
australian famous pilot
australia aviation history
australian woman aviator 
australia world war 2 aces
australia world aviation industry

I hope this has been a most helpful answer. If you have any problem
with it, do please post a Request for Clarification and I shall
respond as soon as I can. Thank you.

Request for Answer Clarification by pa28_jockey-ga on 09 Aug 2003 16:12 PDT
Hi, are answers limited to what is on the internet ?  I'm not trying
to be critical but unfortunately I have seen most of the things bought
up already.

Have there been any other contributions, an idea I had was that with
so many Australians involved in long-distance record-breaking, they
might have worked on navigation and/or blind flying or techniques.

Clarification of Answer by techtor-ga on 10 Aug 2003 05:59 PDT
Hello again Pa28_jockey,
Thank you for your Request For Clarification. From your wording of the
question, I assumed that you were looking for general modern
contributions to the world of aviation. My apologies if I did not
supply what you exactly wanted. I admit my resources are limited only
to those on the Internet, but I suppose anything notable about
Australia's contribution to aviation, even minor ones, would certainly
be documented online. I also admit I have few resources offline that I
can apply to this question.

Since you mentioned blind flying, according to the following source,
the Australian aviation pioneer Charles Edward Kingsford Smith was one
of the men who developed the technique of blind flying, although this
is not a recent development:
Charles Edward Kingsford Smith, long-distance pilot and airline
pioneer
http://users.chariot.net.au/~theburfs/smithy.html

DSTO - Sixty Years of Aeronautical Research in Australia - Studying
the house fly to develop future flying platforms
http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/corporate/history/jubilee/sixtyyears21.html
- Current US-Australia project to develop new navigation technology
for remotely piloted air vehicles.


Other records:
One Guiness record in Australia was set by a man who pulled a Boeing
747. David Huxley pulled a Qantas 747 for a distance of 197.5 feet at
Sydney Airport, Australia. It's not flying, but it is quite a feat
worth mentioning.
From The Guinness Book of World Records, 1998 Edition. Guinness
Pubnlishing Limited, March 1998.

Farthest flight by a Model Helicopter
http://www.mfarchive.modelstuff.co.uk/mf040/airspace.htm


Other:
National Archives of Australia - The Collection - Transport - Air
http://www.naa.gov.au/The_Collection/transport/air.html
- More sources for Australian Aviation history

Gogole Search strings:
guinness record australia flying
"blind Flying" australia
navigation feats australia
air navigation feats australia

I hope this will do as a consolation. Thank you.
pa28_jockey-ga rated this answer:3 out of 5 stars
Good Work by researcher.  Probably limited a little by what is
available on the internet on the subject.

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