Greece’s First Ever Plane Flight
Emmanοuil Argyropoulos was the pilot of Greece’s first plane flight that took off on February 8, 1912, with King George I and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos among the spectators of the event.
It was a spectacle that seemed unbelievable to many at the time—an iron construction with wheels and wings that could fly and a human pilot inside to operate the contraption.
People called Argyropoulos “Trelokaberos”—a lunatic, roughly translated—for getting into such a thing and flying up in the air.
Argyropoulos was one of those pioneers who dared to do things that others were afraid to even think about. He was the son of Georgios Argyropoulos, ambassador of Greece to Russia. He had studied electrical engineering in Germany and obtained a private pilot’s license in France. When he returned to Greece, in January 1912, he brought with him the parts of a Nieuport IV.G airplane with a 50 HP engine.
With the help of engineers from RAF’s military unit in Athens, he assembled the plane, and, after a few days, it was ready to fly the Greek skies. Argyropoulos put an ad in the Athenian newspapers to announce his project, specifying as the take-off place the area of Rouf and the day, Wednesday, February 8th.
The King and the Prime Minister in the audience
Crowds of people flooded the area of Rouf where the makeshift airport was set up to admire the unprecedented spectacle. At precisely 8:10 AM Argyropoulos took off on his plane, being cheered on by the crowd, among whom were also King of Greece George I and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos. The Argyropoulos flight was the beginning of Greek aviation.
Greece’s first plane flight lasted 16 minutes at a height of 300 meters (985 feet) and was a complete success. An hour later, there was a second flight, this time with Eleftherios Venizelos, whom Argyropoulos had convinced to come along, as a passenger. The plane cleared a few circles above the take-off area at a height of 80 meters (262 feet) and returned after four minutes.
After the second flight, it was time to christen the plane. The “godfather” was the prime minister of the time, who gave it the name “Halcyon” and wished the plane “to see its life end naturally. I wish that Mr. Argyropoulos, the first Greek aeronaut, who flew over our sacred ground, continues on another and more perfect machine, which is entirely due to him, the glorious traditions of Icarus, without his misfortunes, to the glory of both himself and his Greek Homeland.”
Venizelos’ first flight was before Churchill’s
On Greece’s first plane flight, Venizelos predated the first flight by the First Lord of the British Admiralty, Winston Churchill, by a year. The speech he delivered after the flight is one of the earliest statements concerning Air Power by a Head of State and shows what was expected of the use of airplanes.
“The airplane is viewed as a weapon of the weak,” Venizelos said. “The risk-taking and daring nature of the Greek will make this brilliant weapon to be of great service in the future.” It is reported that during their meeting, Argyropoulos expressed to Venizelos his wish to join the Military Air Force, which was just then being organized in Greece with the help of the French military mission under General Joseph-Paul Eydoux.
During the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), Emmanouil Argyropoulos enlisted in the Air Force with the rank of Second Lieutenant and took part in military operations. On April 4, 1913, he was on a reconnaissance flight over Lagadas near Thessaloniki flying a Turkish Βleriot ΧΙ-2 type aircraft that was seized by the Greek Army during the occupation of Thessaloniki. However, a mechanical failure caused the crash of the airplane, resulting in the death of the pilot and co-passenger Constantinos Manos. Emmanouil Argyropoulos was 24 years old, and Constantinos Manos was 44.
Argyropoulos was the first military aviator who lost his life in an accident during a scheduled reconnaissance mission. He was also the first of a long list of fallen reserve flying officers and non-commissioned officers, whose numbers in wartime were by no means inconsiderable.
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