Pierre de Caters
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Baron Pierre de Caters (b. Berchem, December 25, 1875 – d. Paris, March 21, 1944) was a Belgian adventurer, aviator and car and motorboat racer. He was the first Belgian to fly an aircraft in 1908.
He was also the first Belgian to receive a pilot license from the Belgian air club on December 2, 1909 and received a gold medal for the first kilometer in the same year. He was the first aircraft manufacturer in Belgium and the first instructor of the military aviation. He also took part in car and motorboat races in Belgium and France. In World War I he joined the Belgian military aviation, commanding the flying school of Étampes.
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[edit] Aviation
Interested in mechanic sports, he was naturally attracted by the emerging aviation. In 1908, Pierre de Caters ordered a Goupy triplane from the Voisin brothers. The existence of this first aircraft was short. De Caters then bought a Voisin biplane (in total he owned five Voisin during his flying career), which he used in 1909, in meetings in Monaco, Douai, Ostend, Frankfurt, Berlin, Antwerp and Warsaw, Istanbul and Cairo.
In 1910, de Caters flew in Athens and participate successfully to meetings in St Job-in-'t Goor, Johannisthal, Montdorf, Warsaw, Budapest, Dusseldorf, Stockel (Brussels).
Meanwhile the "Aviator" company was founded to trade Aviatik biplanes (under Farman licence) powered by Gnome and Argus engines. The Antwerp company "Jero" (Bollekens brothers) was in charge to produce the aircraft for the Aviator company owned by Baron de Caters.
[edit] Journey to India
On November 16, 1910, de Caters embarked to India with two Aviator airplanes. He was accompanied by Jules Tyck, another Belgian pilot.
The city of Bombay refused the organization of an aviation meeting. Then the two airmen traveled to Calcutta with their aircraft crated. In Calcutta, de Caters flew several time from the Club of Tollygunge. On December 21, he flew for 27 minutes with Mrs. Sen Beil, sister of the Maharaja of Cooch Behar as passenger. One of the Aviators was damaged by fire. On February 2, 1911, de Caters and Tyck flew in Bangalore. They were received by the Maharaja of Mysore. From February 16 - 18 Pierre flew from Secunderabad in the Hyderabad state. The Indian tour was completed and Pierre de Caters returned to Europe. A little later Aviator was dissolved and the baron would not take part in competitions any more.
