Sopwith Aviation.
Sopwith Aviation was started by Tom Sopwith who gained pilots certificate 31 from the Royal Aero Club of Briton in 1910. He set up his flying school at the Brooklands race track with his long time Mechanic, Engineer and works manager Fred Sigrist. In 1912 after barn storming at fairs in the USA , he expanded his school into aircraft manufacturing.
Sopwith Aviation was started by Tom Sopwith who gained pilots certificate 31 from the Royal Aero Club of Briton in 1910. He set up his flying school at the Brooklands race track with his long time Mechanic, Engineer and works manager Fred Sigrist. In 1912 after barn storming at fairs in the USA , he expanded his school into aircraft manufacturing.
Sopwith Aircraft.
THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF THE SOPWITH WALLABY.
Many stories that are associated with Harry Hawker are many and varied, one that surprise me a few weeks ago was the story of the forgotten flight of the Sopwith Wallaby. The Wallaby was built for the specific purpose of flying in the England to Australia air race. It was a variant of the Sopwith Atlantic and was designed directly by Harry Hawker himself.
The pilot was Captain G C Matthews and Sgt Tom Kay as mechanic and took off from England, in the first hour followed by Harry across the English Channel. The account of the flight by captain Matthews was a boy's own story in itself with the arrest ,breakdowns being stranded on beaches in the tropics and a final crash landing in Bali. This was months after Kieth and Ross Smith had won, awarded and knighted making sure that anyone that followed only got a minor mention in the papers.
There was one person that was involved, but saw nothing of these events was Hudson Fysh (later MD of Qantas) who was working for the army at the time and carrying out a survey for an air corridor to the north and ,was enlisted to cut the airfield at Fannie Bay NT next to the prison. At one stage commandeering every sheer in Darwin and pressing the prisoners of Fannie Bay jail to work on the proposed airfield until the day of the crash in Bali, two months after the Smith brothers had already landed.
The exercise of getting the Wallaby to Australia was financed by Mr Larkin who had formed a partnership with Tom Sopwith to create be Larkin Sopwith Aircraft Supply Company. a few years after this event, Matthews would take Larkin court for breach of contract and not paying him for the job, however, it was settled out of court because Matthews never finish the flight. Matthews went on to have an interesting life himself working for Qantas, returning to England for the Second World War then working in Germany and Switzerland for on unspecified purposes, marrying a second time and passed away in the Jersey Islands.
Larkin continued with the company and began to fly from the second registered civil aviation runway in Australia, at the side Glenhuntly Primary School on Grange Road. From here on Wallaby and five other Sopwith aircraft including the Gnu and Dove began regular flights around Victoria and flying lessons. Of course with the liquidation of Sopwith aviation in England Larkin renamed his company LARKIN AIRCRAFT SUPPLY COMPANY known as LASCO.
Larkin with other war veterans as pilot and their aircraft flue out of Glenhuntly to Korumburra and Bairnsdale and other places around Gippsland. There were quite a few accidents and coroners inquest following the accidents, most concerning a captain Briggs. He seems to be more danger prone than most pilots of the period, and survived most of these crashes unlike his passengers.
The Wallaby was the aircraft that opened up most of the air services around Australia including the mail run from Adelaide and Sydney in 1923 under the banner of the Australian Aerial Services. Another service open by Australian aerial services was be Cloncurry mail run much to be annoyance of Hudson Fysh, who Larkin had undercut.
It was in 1923 that the Methodist Church across Glenhuntly Road ( now turned into flats)started to complain to Caulfield Council about the training flights flying over the church on sunday mornings. Larkin moved LASCO to the new Melbourne Aerodrome at Coode Island that is where some of the earliest Australian aviation manufacturing is was based.
The Wallaby’s last flight was in 1928 when it crashed into a paddock to the north of Yass and damaged beyond repair while being flown by Larkin himself. Larkin's company would survive until 1930 with the last of the Australian aerial service flights being that had been annoying Fysh the Cloncurry run was taken over by Qantas.
There is a lot more to this story of Larkin and is aircraft Supply Company, however there has been no research in this area and the only person that has and research is only willing to hand it over in his publication at $190 a volume. I have had a good response from the Yass historical society narrowing the crash sight down to a paddock west of the town of Bowning and have helped them solved a few plane crashes in the Yass area.
It would be unfortunate for this part of Australian aviation history and its connection to Harry Hawker to be forgotten and not be mentioned when in 2019 it will be 100th anniversary of the flights.
Many stories that are associated with Harry Hawker are many and varied, one that surprise me a few weeks ago was the story of the forgotten flight of the Sopwith Wallaby. The Wallaby was built for the specific purpose of flying in the England to Australia air race. It was a variant of the Sopwith Atlantic and was designed directly by Harry Hawker himself.
The pilot was Captain G C Matthews and Sgt Tom Kay as mechanic and took off from England, in the first hour followed by Harry across the English Channel. The account of the flight by captain Matthews was a boy's own story in itself with the arrest ,breakdowns being stranded on beaches in the tropics and a final crash landing in Bali. This was months after Kieth and Ross Smith had won, awarded and knighted making sure that anyone that followed only got a minor mention in the papers.
There was one person that was involved, but saw nothing of these events was Hudson Fysh (later MD of Qantas) who was working for the army at the time and carrying out a survey for an air corridor to the north and ,was enlisted to cut the airfield at Fannie Bay NT next to the prison. At one stage commandeering every sheer in Darwin and pressing the prisoners of Fannie Bay jail to work on the proposed airfield until the day of the crash in Bali, two months after the Smith brothers had already landed.
The exercise of getting the Wallaby to Australia was financed by Mr Larkin who had formed a partnership with Tom Sopwith to create be Larkin Sopwith Aircraft Supply Company. a few years after this event, Matthews would take Larkin court for breach of contract and not paying him for the job, however, it was settled out of court because Matthews never finish the flight. Matthews went on to have an interesting life himself working for Qantas, returning to England for the Second World War then working in Germany and Switzerland for on unspecified purposes, marrying a second time and passed away in the Jersey Islands.
Larkin continued with the company and began to fly from the second registered civil aviation runway in Australia, at the side Glenhuntly Primary School on Grange Road. From here on Wallaby and five other Sopwith aircraft including the Gnu and Dove began regular flights around Victoria and flying lessons. Of course with the liquidation of Sopwith aviation in England Larkin renamed his company LARKIN AIRCRAFT SUPPLY COMPANY known as LASCO.
Larkin with other war veterans as pilot and their aircraft flue out of Glenhuntly to Korumburra and Bairnsdale and other places around Gippsland. There were quite a few accidents and coroners inquest following the accidents, most concerning a captain Briggs. He seems to be more danger prone than most pilots of the period, and survived most of these crashes unlike his passengers.
The Wallaby was the aircraft that opened up most of the air services around Australia including the mail run from Adelaide and Sydney in 1923 under the banner of the Australian Aerial Services. Another service open by Australian aerial services was be Cloncurry mail run much to be annoyance of Hudson Fysh, who Larkin had undercut.
It was in 1923 that the Methodist Church across Glenhuntly Road ( now turned into flats)started to complain to Caulfield Council about the training flights flying over the church on sunday mornings. Larkin moved LASCO to the new Melbourne Aerodrome at Coode Island that is where some of the earliest Australian aviation manufacturing is was based.
The Wallaby’s last flight was in 1928 when it crashed into a paddock to the north of Yass and damaged beyond repair while being flown by Larkin himself. Larkin's company would survive until 1930 with the last of the Australian aerial service flights being that had been annoying Fysh the Cloncurry run was taken over by Qantas.
There is a lot more to this story of Larkin and is aircraft Supply Company, however there has been no research in this area and the only person that has and research is only willing to hand it over in his publication at $190 a volume. I have had a good response from the Yass historical society narrowing the crash sight down to a paddock west of the town of Bowning and have helped them solved a few plane crashes in the Yass area.
It would be unfortunate for this part of Australian aviation history and its connection to Harry Hawker to be forgotten and not be mentioned when in 2019 it will be 100th anniversary of the flights.