Maurice Guillaux - Flying into Harden with Australia's first airmail, 16-18 July 1914
Maurice Guillaux - 50th Anniversary 1964 | Postcards & Philatelics 1913+ | Flying into Harden 1914 | First Australian Aerial Mail flight 1914 | Australia - photographs & film 1914 | ' First Aerial Mail, Melbourne to Sydney ', Maurice Guillaux and his plane at Harden, 16 July 1914. Photographer: J. Mitchell. Contents Introduction Stunt pilot extraordinaire April 1914 attempt First airmail flight 1914 Stopover at Harden Lockley's account Contemporary accounts Austin Byrne The first References --------------- 1. Introduction The first official air mail flight in Australia - from Melbourne to Sydney - was undertaken between Thursday 16 and Saturday 18 July 1914 by visiting French stunt pilot Ernest Francois "Maurice" Guillaux (1883-1917) in a Blériot XI monoplane (Dougherty 2014). The aircraft possessed an open monobox frame, a 50 horsepower Gnome engine, and carried 55 litres of fuel enabling it to fly for approximately two hours (...