John Robertson Duigan

Who was John Robertson Duigan?

John Robertson Duigan MC was an Australian pioneer aviator who built and flew the first Australian-made aircraft. Duigan was born in Terang, Victoria, and grew up in Melbourne attending Brighton Grammar School. He travelled to the United Kingdom in late 1901 to study electrical engineering at Finsbury Technical College in London and Motor Engineering at Battersea Polytechnic. He worked for the Wakefield & District Light Railway Co. until 1907 when he returned to Australia. From 1908 he lived at 'Spring Plains', a sheep station owned by his father near Mia Mia in central Victoria. After seeing a postcard of Wilbur Wright's flights in France in late 1908 he began experimenting with aviation, first constructing a Wright-type glider, and then a powered aircraft. The 20-25 horsepower, four-cylinder engine was made in Melbourne by J.E. Tilley. This Farman-type biplane made a short flight on 16 July 1910, but Duigan never considered this to be a fully controlled flight. He regarded his longer flight of 7 October 1910 as his first successful attempt. This was followed by ever longer and higher flights. His younger brother, Reg Duigan assisted with most aspects of the construction and testing of the biplane and later flew it about a dozen times. The biplane was flown in public at Bendigo Racecourse on 3 May 1911 where it completed its only circling flight as the paddock at Spring Plains was surrounded by hills and trees.