Tribute to SA’S father of aviation
Wright brothers were still at school when KZN farmer flew
NOT many people are aware that a farmer in Kwazulu-natal built an aircraft and flew it when the Wright brothers were still at school.
John Goodman Household was born in England on December 9, 1845. His parents emigrated to a farm in Karkloof, near Howick.
He was said to be a dreamer and clever inventor who wondered, like several other aviation pioneers, whether man would ever be capable of flying safely through the air in a powered aircraft.
In 1871, at the age of 26, he envisioned his own flying machine and began his research by shooting large birds, weighing them, measuring their wings and calculating the area of wingspan needed to carry his weight.
Household’s parents encouraged their inventive son when he designed and built a mechanical sawmill on their timber farm, De Magtenburg, but they were not so keen on his interest in flying. His religious mother believed God did not intend humans to fly like birds.
Satisfied that his mathematical calculations were correct, Household constructed his craft from oiled silk stretched over a light bamboo frame.
It had enormous wings with a seat similar to a swing suspended below by four ropes.
The inventor planned to control the direction of his flight by tilting the seat left or right – a rudimentary steering system.
On the day of the first flight in 1875, his brother Gordon and a few farm labourers helped Goodman carry the glider to the edge of an 80m cliff on the farm. Placing himself on the swinging seat, Household gave the order to launch – and South Africa’s first brief flight got under way.
It is reported that the glider covered just over a kilometre above the tall gumtrees in the valley before coming to a shuddering halt on rising ground.
Encouraged by this success, Household urged his ground crew to carry the glider to the top of the cliff again.
During the second disastrous flight, the craft soared for a while before crashing into a yellowwood tree.
Household broke a leg and was carried back to the farmhouse to face the wrath of his mother, who made him promise never to attempt to fly again.
What was left of the glider was packed away in a barn and, no doubt, the strange contraption was inspected by visitors who helped to spread the story of South Africa’s, and arguably the world’s, first flight.
By abandoning his experiments, Household allowed the German Otto Lillienthal to make the first “official” glider flight in 1896. Eight years later, in 1904, Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first powered flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Household died in Pietermaritzburg in 1906 at the age of 61, two years after the Wright brothers’ success, and he was no doubt delighted to read before his death that man had finally conquered the air.
In 1995, the Lions River Heritage Society, the South African Air Force Association (Saafa) and other donors recognised Household’s feat by erecting a commemorative monument on the district road between Karkloof and Curry’s Post, 23km from Howick.
In recent years it became hidden by overgrown grass and weeds. To compound the problem, there were no directional signs to lead visitors to the spot where aviation history was made.
Early in 2015, Commander (Captain) Arnold de Klerk, a former pilot in the South African Air Force and SAA, who had retired to Howick in 2004, saw a letter in a local newspaper complaining about the lack of signage to the monument.
He was vice-president of Saafa in KZN at the time and, after locating the fenced John Goodman Household, top; commemorative plaques, above and below; and Arnold de Klerk, right. memorial in a section of the Karkloof forest owned by Sappi, he resolved to restore it with the help of Saafa members.
His appeals for funding brought responses from the Saafa national executive committee and contributions were made by branches in Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Joburg and Port Alfred. Sappi also made a donation.
Saafa members cleared the weeds and long grass and attractive directional signs were put up at both ends of the D293 district road between Karkloof and Curry’s Post.
A rededication ceremony, attended by about 50 people, was held on November 7, 2015.
Unveiling the monument, the president of Saafa, Major-general (ret) Hugh Paine, declared: “The father of aviation in South Africa flew his glider in 1875 when the Wright brothers were still at school, so his visionary exploits are worthy of recognition. He made a major contribution to our country’s heritage.”