Giacomo D'Angelis was a Corsican-

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

hotelier and

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

pioneer who piloted the first powered airplane flight in Asia in Madras (Chennai), India on 10 March 1910. The flight reportedly occurred nine months prior to another published account of a flight in

Allahabad Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...

. D'Angelis flew a self-built aircraft.

Life

Giacomo D’Angelis, a confectioner from

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, arrived in Madras in 1880 and opened his "Maison Francaise" as

chef de cuisine A chef de cuisine (, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that leads a kitchen and its cooks. A chef patron (feminine form ''chef patronne'') (French for ''boss chef'') or executive chef is a chef that manages multiple kitche ...

, and his excellent service soon enabled him to open a small hotel in 1906, the latter Heritage Hotel d'Angelis at

Anna Salai Anna Salai (), named for C. N. Annadurai, formerly known as St. Thomas Mount Road or simply Mount Road, is an arterial road in Chennai, India. It starts at the Cooum Creek, south of Fort St George, leading in a south-westerly direction towa ...

, the former ''Mountain Road'', in Chennai.Viola, Antonella Viola (2013
Migration across three continents : the d’Angelis family, Conserveries mémorielles
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D'Angelis 's biplane

The

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

has been built by D'Angelis entirely from his own designs, experimenting with a small horse-power engine. D'Angelis seems to have been inspired by

Louis Blériot Louis Charles Joseph Blériot ( , also , ; 1 July 1872 – 1 August 1936) was a French aviator, inventor, and engineer. He developed the first practical headlamp for cars and established a profitable business manufacturing them, using much of t ...

who was the first to fly across the English Channel in July 1909. D'Angelis tested his aeroplane in

Pallavaram Pallavaram (originally Pallavapuram) is a southern suburb of Chennai, India. It lies in the district of Chengalpattu, situated within the Chennai Metropolitan Area, Tamil Nadu state. Formerly a Municipality under Alandur taluk, it was ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, and then arranged a public viewing in March 1910 reported by the local newspapers. A'Dangeli's made its flight on March 26, 1910: "''We are posting you what we believe is the first aeroplane in India, which has been constructed by one of our customers, Mr. G. D'Angelis of Madras. The machine has been built by our friend entirely from his own design, and we understand that although upto the present he has been experimenting with a small horse-power engine, the results given by this are so satisfactory that with a higher horse-power he anticipates being able to make long and consecutive flights''." The aircraft's engine may have been supplied by E. and A Levetus, and Co. '' India Weekly'' mentioned that the motor of the biplane had been built by Samuel John Green, an engineer of the Simpson's company.

References

External links

archivosdangelis.blogspot.com

kbhargava.com: Aviation in India
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Giacomo D'Angelis Flight in Madras 1910
{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Angelis, Giacomo Indian aviators Italian aviators Italian people of Corsican descent Aviation pioneers Aviation history of India Italian expatriates in India