DEATH IN SYDNEY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 July 1943, Page 4

DEATH IN SYDNEY

OF NOTED AIR PIONEER WILLIAM EWART HART. WON 15 MILE RACE IN TWO DAYS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received'This Day, 12.20 p.m. SYDNEY, This Day. • A man who won a fifteen-mile air race in 1913, although it took him two days to fly the distance, has died here. He was William Ewart Hart, a city dentist, aged 57. Mr Hart held the No. 1 Australian civil aviation licence. A huge crowd watched the start of the race between Mr Hart and a visiting American airman, Wizard Stone. Mr Hart was forced down and spent the night in a paddock, but repaired his engine next day and won the race. In 1910, Mr Hart built the first aeroplane made in Australia. It was a crude machine. Set around the motor was a framework made of conduit, piano string and pieces of cane. The pilot’s seat was taken from an old plough. The pilot wore a mask to protect himself from flying oil, fumes and the wind. Mr Hart had several serious crashes, but became the first volunteer for the Australian Flying Corps in the last war.