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Thomas
Macleod (1881 - 1963) |
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A
yachting and flying enthusiast, Macleod built and launched his
auxiliary yacht "Brynhild" in 1909. The next year he
helped to found the first Queensland Aero Club and a State
branch of the Aerial League of Australia. |
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In
July 1910 he helped to build a biplane glider, the first
heavier-than-air apparatus built in Queensland, and made the
State's first officially observed flight in a bat's wing
monoplane glider, which he had constructed.
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The
biplane glider's first flight was made on 22-Dec-1910 on the
slopes at Oxley near Brisbane QLD (now known as Seventeen Mile
Rocks). A wooden rail was used along which the glider slid, on
a cradle, before becoming airborne.
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Experiments
continued, and Macleod met and became a firm friend of Bert
Hinkler.
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Thomas Macleod Aviation Archives, Queensland Museum,
established in 1973, are named after him. |
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18-Dec-2010 a memorial will be dedicated to Macleod to
celebrate the 100th Anniversary of his gliding experiments -
the land where the 1910 flight took place remains undeveloped
and the Brisbane City Council has allocated a section
within a park for the memorial in the form of a plinth with a
large brass plaque detailing Macleod's exploits. |
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>
Return to "Gliding
Queensland - HISTORY"
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