Australia's Flying Taylors

1909 Florence Taylor (Florence Mary Taylor; 1879 - February 13, 1969), the first woman architect, structural engineer and civil engineer in Australia, flew in a glider at Narrabeen Heads, New South Wales, becoming the first Australian woman to fly.

Her husband, architect-engineer George Augustine Taylor, who designed and built the glider following the principles of Lawrence Hargrave, made Australia's first flight in a heavier-than-air craft on the same day.
George Taylor, a drinking buddy of Henry Lawson's (they were both members of a small and exclusive group of carousers called the 'Dawn and Dusk Club'), and founder of the Wireless Institute of NSW in 1910, had built a biplane with a box-kite tail for balance, from coachwood, covered with oiled calico.

The location of this pioneer flight was about one kilometre from where this almanac was produced between 2001 and 2003.

Lawson & Co: people and events associated with Henry and Louisa Lawson

Tagged: australia, aviation, history