James - 6V



Lawrence Hargrave



Lawrence Hargrave

Lawrence Hargrave was born in Greenwich in England on January 29, 1850. He was educated in England at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmoreland. In 1872 he came to Australia in search of gold, but the ship chartered by the group of adventurers was wrecked off the Queensland coast. Lawrence was the first person to fly a plane in Australia. To fly the first plane in Australia Lawrence made four box kites and attached a seat to them.When the wind blew he managed to float five metres above the ground.After he flew he started making engines for planes and he invented a flapping plane.He unfortunately died of blood-poisoning in 1915. There are places named after him and there is a memorial of him at Stanwell Park in New South Wales.Without Lawrence Hargrave Australia might not have as much of an understanding of aircrafts as we do.