Kimmerling makes (air)waves in SA

March 19 1910 — Pioneer French aviator Albert Kimmerling flies the first fare-paying passenger in South Africa, when Thomas Thornton of the South African Aero Club pays £100 for a short flight from Sydenham Hill, near Orange Grove in Johannesburg. Kimmerling was born near Lyon on June 22 1882. He studied at Collège-lycée Ampère, Lyon, had a special interest in mechanics and was a professional ice-hockey player before discovering aviation. In October 1909 he was employed by Voisin Freres, a French aircraft manufacturing company. Orville Wright had taken to the skies just four years earlier and interest in mechanical flight was growing rapidly worldwide. In South Africa, the East London Town Council issued a public notice inviting the demonstration of any aeroplane or “flying machine” at the town’s forthcoming Gala Season in December. Howard Farrar & Co, the manufacturer of mining and general machinery, offered to import one of the most modern aircraft and an aviator for the event. A Voisin biplane, Kimmerling and mechanic J Moller arrived in East London on December 18 1909. Kimmerling made the first manned, heavier-than-air powered flight in South Africa (some reports state in Africa) on December 28 1909 at East London’s Nahoon Racecourse. Kimmerling (pictured with his his sister Jeanne Ormond) dies on June 9 1912 at age 29 when a 2-seat Sommer monoplane he is test flying crashes near Mourmelon, France.