Edgar Charles Johnston

Edgar Charles Johnston (born on 30th April 1896 in Perth , died on 24. May 1988 in Melbourne ) was a high Australian aviation official, previously successful fighter pilot in the First World War . From 1921 to 1955 he held responsible positions in the Australian Aviation Authority (as head from 1931 to 1939) and from 1955 to 1967 he was international advisor to the Qantas airline .

Fighter pilot

Johnston was born in Perth in 1896, the tenth of eleven children of surveyor Harry Frederick Johnston and his wife Maria Louisa (née Butcher). In 1914 he began an apprenticeship as a surveyor and enrolled in a corresponding course at the University of Western Australia. After the outbreak of World War I, he joined the Volunteer Army (First Australian Imperial Force ) in April 1915 , where he served first on Gallipoli and then on the Western Front . In March 1916 he was posted to the Royal Flying Corps and trained with Charles Kingsford Smith . During his service, he was appointed an aircraft pilot with the rank of captain, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross - a total of 20 kills by German pilots, making him the fifth most successful Australian pilot in the First World War.

After the war he left the Royal Air Force and returned to Australia, where he completed his studies as a surveyor in Perth. On February 23, 1921, he married Margaret Allison, the daughter of the Australian geologist Andrew Gibb Maitland, with whom he had two children.

Aviation Official

For the emerging civil aviation he was appointed supervisor for the planning of airfields in 1921, and in the following years he set up numerous runways and airfields, as well as their navigation lights . This made him one of the first civil servants in the new branch - his superior was Horace Brinsmead , whose successor he was to become. In addition to his work as a surveyor, he had his pilot's license until 1940.

In 1929 he was named assistant manager for civil aviation in Australia. When Brinsmead was unable to work after a flight accident in December 1930, Johnston initially took over the office temporarily, from May 4, 1933 finally permanently. In this role he was active in several committees and was responsible for the smooth running of the aviation industry. In 1936, the Civil Aviation Committee was set up for this activity, with Johnston as chairman. He campaigned heavily for the use of US Douglas DC-2 and DC-3 aircraft , offending government officials who wanted to restrict imports to British aircraft. When a DC-2 plane crashed in Victoria in 1938 , Johnston was charged with several serious wrong decisions, leading opposition leader John Curtis to testify that Johnston would be made a scapegoat. As a result, in 1939 the aviation committee was replaced by a new aviation authority and fundamentally reorganized. The post of general manager was given to Arthur Brownlow Corbett, Johnston was given the post of assistant general manager, and was now responsible for air freight and aviation law.

During World War II , Johnston organized supply routes for the Allies and advised policy on technical issues. He also took on increasingly important functions in committees and advocated international agreements. In 1944 he took part in the Chicago preparatory meeting for the establishment of the International Civil Aviation Organization , where he became vice-president of the committees for publications and registrations, at the subsequent meetings in Montréal in 1946 and 1947 he was deputy negotiator on the Australian side. He was also the Australian negotiator at meetings of the Commonwealth Air Cargo Council and the South Pacific Air Cargo Council. In 1946 he was a member of the ANAC (Australian National Airlines Commission). His negotiations led to bilateral agreements with many Commonwealth nations on the use of airspace, enabling Great Britain-Australia flights. After all, he sat on the boards of several airlines.

He resigned from the aviation authority in 1955 and also retired from other official positions. Instead he became an "International Consultant" at Qantas . Retired in 1967, Johnston supported a civil aviation history association and pursued hobbies including fishing and hiking. He died in Malvern near Melbourne in 1988 .

His eldest brother Edward Bertram "Bertie" Johnston was an influential politician in the 1910s and 1920s.

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