Baron Pierre de Caters [[[Image:Pierre de caters wiki.jpg]]]

This adventurous Antwerp born was the first Belgian to fly an aircraft in 1908. He was also the first Belgian to receive a pilot license from the belgian Aéro-Club on December, 2nd 1909. His aeronautical performances are impressive: golden medal for the first kilometer in 1909, first aircraft manufacturer in Belgium, first instructor of the military aviation … He was the first in many occasion in Belgium and abroad. . Pierre de Caters was born in Berchem (Antwerp) on December, 25th 1875. He was a cold blood sportsman at the start of the 20th Century. He took part in car and motorboat races in Belgium and France. Interested in mechanic sports, he was naturally attracted by the emerging aviation

In 1908, Pierre de Caters ordered a Goupy triplane to the Voisin brothers. The existence of this first aircraft was short. De Caters then bought a Voisin biplane (it seems de Caters owned five Voisin during his flying career) he used in 1909, in meetings in Monaco, Douai, Ostende, Frankfurt, Berlin, Antwerp and Warsaw, Istanbul and Cairo. In 1910, de Caters flow 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. On November 16th, 1910, Pierre 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 Calcuta, de Caters flow several time from Club of Tollygunj. On Décember, 21 1910, he flow 27 minutes with Mrs Sen Beil, sister of the maharadjah of Kuchbehar as passenger. One of the AVIATOR was damaged by fire. On 2 February, 2nd 1911, de Caters and Tyck flow in Bangalore. They were received by Maharadjah of Mysore. From 16 to February, 18th, Pierre flow from Secunderabad in the Hyderabad state. The Indian tour was completed and Pierre de Caters returned to Europe. A little later the company AVIATOR was dissolved and the baron will not take part any more in any competition. At the declaration of war, August 4, 1914, Pierre de Caters joined the Belgian military aviation. He commanded the flying school of Etampes. In 1916, he retired in Paris.

In March 1937, he received ovation at the time of the creation of the section of the " Vieilles Tiges " of Belgium, Pierre de Caters deceased in Paris on March 21, 1944.

Text & pictures Pierre Cryns, Nicolas Godfurnon & Yves Duwelz (yduwelz@gmail.com) bamf-bamrs 2005 [1] [2] [3] Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...