Freddy van Riemsdijk

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Frederick Lodewijk "Freddy" van Riemsdijk (born May 14, 1890 in Utrecht , † March 17, 1955 in Paris ) was a Dutch aviation pioneer . He was the first Dutchman with a license to fly.

biography

The aviation pioneer

Freddy van Riemsdijk was the youngest child of the Baron von Riemsdijk, who died when the son was five years old. In 1903 he was sent to Paris after an asthma attack to complete his school education. In August 1909 he traveled from Paris to the Grande Semaine d`Aviation de la Champagne in Reims , where he saw flight demonstrations by Louis Blériot and Henri Farman among others in front of an estimated 500,000 people. To become an aviator himself , he had his part of his father's inheritance paid off.

In 1909 van Riemsdijk first tried to buy an Antoinette from Charles Houry in Paris . He suggested that Houry open a flight school together, but for financial reasons it didn't work out either with the purchase of the plane or with the establishment of the school. Thereupon van Riemsdijk turned to the American aircraft manufacturer Glenn Curtiss , who had long been in a dispute over patents with the Wright brothers . He traveled to Hammondsport near Buffalo , received his first flying lessons from Curtiss and bought an airplane built by Curtiss for $ 5,000 (equivalent to 123,000 euros based on today's value). It was the first Curtiss aircraft to be exported because van Riemsdijk had it packed and shipped to France.

From Le Havre, in turn, the plane was transported across the Mediterranean to Egypt because van Riemsdijk wanted to take part in the air show there. Just before the air show began, van Riemsdijk was informed by the French officials of the Aero Club de France, who helped organize the show, that he needed a license as a pilot. On January 30, 1910, he made the necessary flights, and on March 8, he officially received the French license No. 43, the first Dutchman. But already in February van Riemsdijk was able to take part in the Grande Semaine de L'Aviation in Heliopolis . He was sixth in the distance flight of 29.5 kilometers. For this he received 2,500 francs, which he quickly spent on repairs to his aircraft, which had to remain on the ground for four days.

After his return from Egypt, Freddy van Riemsdijk took part in other air shows and won other prizes. In April 1910 he crashed his plane in the Mediterranean, but van Riemsdijk had installed air tanks under the wings so that it would not sink. The French Navy took the pilot and the machine out of the water. In May he took part in an air show in Palermo and won prizes but no money. He returned to Paris, sold his plane and turned back to the painting he had done before. The following year it turned out that Freddy van Riemsdijk was over-indebted because of his flying. The cash prizes he won now far outweighed the expense of his hobby. He had spent his inheritance and borrowed money from relatives that he could not repay. His bank sued him because his account was overdrawn. It is estimated that, based on today's value, he spent one million euros on his passion for flying.

More years

In 1914 van Riemsdijk volunteered for military service in the French army and was employed in the Deuxième Groupe d'Aviation . He took part in the Battle of the Marne . He assured his mother in letters - probably untruthfully so as not to worry her - that he would not fly himself, but was merely a mechanic. He was discharged from the military after suffering from pneumonia. After the war, Freddy van Riemsdijk occupied himself with painting and traveling. He married, but he and his wife did not have children. His wife died during World War II ; his house in the south of France at that time was devastated by the allied troops. He then moved to Paris, where he died of pneumonia in 1955.

Honors

In Eindhoven the Freddy van Riemsdijkweg was named after him. An exhibition on Freddy van Riemsdijk took place in Leiden in 2010.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Freddy van Riemsdijk wrote around 640 letters to his mother and to his father's executor, many of which have survived. It was mainly from this correspondence that his short aviation career could be reconstructed. These letters were only discovered in an archive a few years ago.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Riemsdijk, Freddy van
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Riemsdijk, Frederick Lodewijk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch aviation pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Utrecht
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1955
Place of death Paris