James Fitzmaurice
James Michael Christopher Fitzmaurice (born January 6, 1898 in Dublin , † September 26, 1965 ibid) was a pilot in the Irish Air Force with the rank of colonel. He became famous when on 12./13. April 1928 together with Hermann Köhl and Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld the first flight over the North Atlantic from east to west with the Junkers W 33 Bremen succeeded.
biography
His parents were Michael FitzMaurice and Mary Agnes O'Riordan and lived on North Circular Road, Dublin. In 1902 the family moved to Port Laoise (then Maryborough), where his father worked in the local prison. Fitzmaurice went to school (St. Mary's and then CBS Port Laoise) from January 1905 to late 1913. When the First World War broke out , he registered for military service in 1914. In 1915 he was sent to France and wounded there, but reinstated in May 1916. At the age of 19 he was promoted to corporal in January 1917 and to sub-lieutenant in November 1917 . He was seconded to Reading Military Pilot School on June 1, 1918 . After his training, he was supposed to be sent back to France as a fighter pilot on November 11, 1918, but the end of the First World War prevented this.
On January 6, 1919, he married Violet "Bill" Clarke. He stayed in the Air Force and was used as a navigation officer in the air mail service between Folkestone and Cologne . In May 1919 he was navigator on the first European night mail flight from England to Cologne. He left the military temporarily and worked as an insurance agent for a year and a half. In May 1921 his only daughter Patricia was born; at the same time he joined the newly formed Air Corps of the Irish Army and on September 1, 1927 was commander of the Irish Air Corps , which had its headquarters in Baldonnel , 19 km southwest of Dublin.
Transatlantic flight
Fitzmaurice had its own Atlantic flight plans in the opposite direction since John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown's successful west-east Atlantic flight in 1919, which was considered impossible for a long time due to the prevailing winds and currents for motorized aircraft. As early as 1925 he had collected the necessary funds to finance such a company, but in that year and the following year he was refused permission to start because the establishment of the Irish Air Corps was not endangered by daring undertakings. It was not until September 16, 1927 that Fitzmaurice was able to start an attempt at an Atlantic flight from Baldonnel together with the Scot RH Mac Intosh. Your aircraft was the 550 hp Fokker high-wing "Princess Xenia". The planes had to turn back after reaching the ocean due to unfavorable weather conditions. Even if their project failed, they nonetheless attracted attention, and German pilots considered Baldonnel as a future launch site for further attempts to fly at the Atlantic Ocean.
Fitzmaurice became world famous when he was born on 12./13. April 1928 took part in the first flight over the North Atlantic from east to west in the " Bremen " as co-pilot. With the pilot Hermann Köhl and the initiator of the flight, Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld , the planes took off from Baldonnel airfield in a specially prepared Junkers W 33 . The plane landed in Greenly Island on Newfoundland after a 36 ½ hour flight . Cheering parades and congratulations showered the aviation pioneers.
Additional Services
After the successful flight, Fitzmaurice was promoted from major to colonel, but resigned from the Irish Air Force on February 2, 1929. He divorced in January 1931. In 1933 he traveled to Germany in the hope of finding employment with German aircraft manufacturers. On this trip he also met Adolf Hitler . During the 1930s he lived mainly in the New York area. During the Second World War , Fitzmaurice settled near London and ran a club for aviator veterans there. After the war he went back to Ireland.
Honors
- In the 1950s, he was invited to various occasions. On June 1, 1955, he took part as a guest of honor on Lufthansa's first route test flight from Shannon to New York.
- During his last stay in Germany, the International Committee of Aerospace Activities (ICA) awarded him the “Wind Rose Pioneer Chain” at the International Transport Exhibition in Munich .
- Four streets in Germany are named after him ( Bremen at the airport , Cologne , Ulm and Pfaffenhofen an der Roth ), as well as numerous others in mostly English-speaking countries (including Wagga Wagga / Australia ).
- In the Niederauerbach district of the Palatinate town of Zweibrücken there is a memorial stone hidden in the forest of the Heilbach Valley.
Fonts
- Hermann Köhl, James C. Fitzmaurice, EG Freiherr von Hünefeld: Our ocean flight. Life memories. The first east-west flight across the Atlantic in Bremen . Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin 1928.
Web links
- Newspaper article about James Fitzmaurice in the 20th century press the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ^ Captain Hermann Koehl, Major James C. Fitzmaurice, and Baron Guenther von Huenefeld: The Three Musketeers of the Air . GP Putnam's Sons, New York, London, 1928
- ^ Henry Boylan: A Dictionary of Irish Biography. Dublin 1998. p. 135, ISBN 0-7171-2945-4 .
- ↑ Teddy Fennelly: Fitz . Anderin Publishing Company, The Leinster Express, Dublin Road, Port Laoise, County Laoise, 1997, ISBN 0-86335-023-2 .
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Port Laoise CBS
- ↑ Zweibrücker Rundschau April 17, 2019
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fitzmaurice, James |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Fitzmaurice, James Michael Christopher (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Irish pilot |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 6, 1898 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dublin |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 26, 1965 |
| Place of death | Dublin |