Carl Gustav Cederström

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Carl Gustav Cederström (1867-1918) circa 1915

Carl Gustav Alexander Cederström (March 5, 1867 – June 29, 1918) was a pioneering Swedish aviator and a Friherre.

[edit] Biography

Carl was born to Maria Cecilia Wennerstrom; and Anders Cederström in the town Södertälje, and he was baptized in Stockholm ^[1]. The first successful flight in Sweden was achieved by a French aviator on July 19, 1909. Carl received a French certificate for aviation in 1910 from the Blériot flying school to become the 74th pilot in the world. He was followed by Hugo Sundstedt who was the second in Sweden to fly and the first one to receive a certificate issued in Sweden. Also in 1910, the first Swedish-built aircraft, the Grasshopper, took flight. The plane was a modified Blériot XI built in Landskrona in southern Sweden by Hjalmar Nyrop and Oscar Ask. In 1912, Carl Cederström started a flying school with four military pupils at Malmen, near Linköping. The following summer, he left Malmen, and his hangars were taken over by the Swedish army. [1] The former school became the first permanent base for army aviators. Cederström died in an accident on June 29, 1918, as his plane went down in the Gulf of Bothnia.