The Aircraft of the New South Wales State Aviation School

Caudron's

Due to the British and French manufacturers having all their production being used by the British and French flying services as soon as they became available the NSWSAS had to be creative in their procurement of entry level training aircraft. The NSWSAS used four Caudrons. The first was bought from Andrew Delfosse Badgery who sold it to NSW when Badgery joined the Australian Flying Corps. Badgery had been a pre-war pilot who got his flying certificate in France and had the Australian agency for Caudron. The site of the proposed second Sydney airport is Badgery's Creek, which had previously been part of the large Badgery's Estates.

The school used three other Caudron aircraft which were built at the school. One had a Gnome rotary engine purchased in Melbourne, another had a Walsh Island Anzani 6 cylinder 45 hp engine, and the fourth had no engine.

Jenny's

The school initially wished to purchase four Maurice Farman aircraft from Britain, but the RFC's war needs made the procurement impossible. Instead the school purchased two Curtiss Jenny aircraft from the then neutral United States. The two JN4 aircraft arrived in February of 1916. The aircraft were initially stored off-site as the huge hangar had not been completed.

In February of 1917, the State School decided they required two more Jennies to take over from the older Jennies, which had done a great deal of airframe hours by this time. Billy Stutt the Chief Instructor of the School expressed his wish for Maurice Farman's instead of Jennies. Requests were placed but ofter a long period of delay in Europe, the NSW Government ordered Jennies anyway, receiving two JN4's which arrived on the 16th of July 1917.

After the war the Jennies did some notable flights, in November of 1919 Sydney Pickles flew from Richmond, through Broken Hill to the South Australian twon of Cockburn and back. The flight battled high winds, oppresive heat, overheating radiators and a hailstorm which punched 300 holes in the Jennies fabric. It was the first east-west traversal of New South Wales.

Only two Jennies have been traced, one passed into private hands and was abandoned, the other became G-AUGB and shipped to the British Solomons Islands Protectorate. Fitted with floats and a Wolseley-Viper, it was lost in a storm in Tualgi harbour.

NSWSAS Caudron information courtesy of Neville Hayes.