Sydney Airport Celebrates 100 years

A notable historic event was the first Sydney to Melbourne flight on Wednesday 14 April 1920 with Love carrying John Gibson of the Melbourne firm of Foy and Gibson, with AA&ECo contracted for £25 per flying hour. After leaving Mascot at 8:20am the flight encountered strong headwinds and bad weather, and with a combination of planned and unplanned landings at Goulburn, Yass, Cootamundra, Albury and Seymour, it eventually arrived Point Cook at 2.00pm on Friday after a total of 9 flying hours.

The charter of a 504K by paint manufacturer Lewis Berger of Rhodes, saw a promotional flight with Love flying on a 5,000 miles tour of 42 principal NSW towns from 6 September to 19 October 1920. Local school children were granted a holiday by the Minister for Education to see the visiting aircraft.

An important development followed registration of The Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd (later Qantas) in Brisbane on 16 November 1920, resulting in an order being placed with AA&ECo for two 504Ks powered by Sunbeam Dyak engines. Delays in the supply of the engines saw one 504K delivered with an Avro 547 Triplane, G-EAQX (later G-AUCR), although the latter aircraft never operated with the airline. The Triplane arrived as deck cargo in Sydney on 17 January 1921 on the SS Gilgal with Paul McGuiness performing the maiden flight from Mascot on 2 March 1921.

The second order for a 504K, later G-AUEO, was placed by a private buyer for personal use. After construction the aircraft was flown from Mascot by Jack Treacy over 1,845 miles to Richard Hogarth at Clio Station, Richmond, Queensland. The journey of 20 flying hours created a record for a civil delivery flight.

Avro aircraft again came to prominence on 8 April 1922 during the second Aerial Derby Meeting now held at at Victoria Park Racecourse, Sydney, with Love winning in Avro 504K G-AUCZ and Hudson Fysh second in the Triplane. After being used for joy flights over Sydney Harbour the Triplane later had its CofA cancelled, was scrapped, with the fuselage used for many years as a chicken coop.

In an encouraging development, a contract was entered into for the supply of six 504Ks, A4-48 to -53 to the recently-formed RAAF, to be built at the Botany Road factory and delivered during 1922/23. Delays in training, securing and testing materials saw the company incur a loss on the contract.

Branching out, Love asked Broadsmith to design and build the Broadsmith B.1, proposed to carry passengers and mail using Australian materials. Initially powered by a 400 hp (298 kW) Liberty engine Love carried out the maiden flight from Mascot on 3 February 1923. A replacement 375 hp (280 kW) Rolls-Royce Eagle 8 shipped from England was never installed. The B.1 fell into disrepair and the salvaged engine ended its days in a Sydney bank as an emergency powerplant.

The disappointing decision to place AA&ECo into voluntary liquidation was announced on 15 March 1923. The aircraft-grade timber Broadsmith painstakingly selected is believed to have ended up as firewood.

The final blow came after the lapse of the Mascot aerodrome site lease with a great sense of injustice to Love. The Commonwealth Government would make the compulsory acquisition with no compensation paid to AA&ECo.

Love wrote in his autobiography, “Within weeks of us closing down and going out of business it was officially announced that the Federal Government had decided to establish its own Government owned aircraft factory in Melbourne and intended to appoint its own personnel in this establishment. As a ‘sop’ to us they agreed to take over all our plant at bare cost and paid us a nominal price for the fine five-seater commercial aircraft that we had built, in which Broadsmith had burnt midnight oil over such a long period and in which we all had such high hopes and pride.”

Nigel Love left aviation and established a successful future in the flour milling industry. He died on 2 October 1979.

A question lingers, where would Sydney’s airport be located today without Nigel Love’s bullock paddock visit 100 years ago?

‘Where would Sydney’s airport be located today without Nigel Love’s bullock paddock visit 100 years ago?’