IN 1894, ALMOST a decade before the Wright brothers celebrated the first powered flight, Australian inventor Lawrence Hargrave connected four box kites of his own design, added a seat, and flew 4.8m off the ground, proving it was possible to build a safe, heavier-than-air flying machine.
Hargrave was born in 1850 in Greenwich, England. His father, lawyer John Fletcher Hargrave, moved to New South Wales in 1857, and as assistant to expedition leader Abraham Thompson on an exploratory circumnavigation of Australia. The journey left a positive impression on Hargrave but the time at sea kept him from his studies. Unable to follow his father into law, he was apprenticed in the engineering workshops of the Australasian Steam Navigation Company. Between 1872 and 1877 he worked as an engineer on six expeditions, earning a reputation as a respected explorer and cartographer.
