Thomas Gale 1871
South Australia's first recorded pre-aeroplane ascent was in June 1871 with a flight in a coal gas-filled balloon, piloted by American Thomas Gale. The balloon flew from the sheep and cattle markets near the corner of North and West terraces, Adelaide, to a point 12 kilometres north east, near Thorndon Park Reservoir. Lavinia Balford of Parkside was the first South Australian female to ascend in a balloon. Gale never left Adelaide. He married Lavinia Balford and lived in Parkside for the rest of his life.

Carl Wilhelm (Bill) Wittber 1910
Adelaide businessman Fred Jones imported a Bleriot XI monoplane in 1910 and employed Wittber to supervise the aircraft's assembly and rigging, run the engine and oversee flight tests. During taxiing tests on 13 March 1910, Wittber tried 50%-60% power and the aircraft rose about five feet and travelled for about 40 yards. This was Australia's first aircraft flight. Four days later Fred C. Custance, made a flight but crashed on landing, wrecking the plane. He escaped injury.

H. E. Watkins 1911
Douglas Mawson imported a Vickers-built REP monoplane from England in 1911 while preparing for his next Antarctic expedition. P&O shipped the plane on the steamship Macedonia to Adelaide in October 1911 with its pilot H.E. Watkins and also fellow expeditioners Bickerton and Wild. During a test flight on October 4 at Adelaide's Cheltenham racecourse, excessive pressure in the fuel tank caused it to rupture, almost blinding Watkins. On its second flight early next morning, wind caught the 34-feet-long aircraft at the south west corner of the racecourse, causing its left side to touch the ground and overturn. The monoplane was damaged beyond repair for flying but it was sent south with the expedition, stripped of its wings and metal sheathing from the fuselage and used as a tug for 4 sledges.

Arthur (A.W.) Jones 1914
A.W. Jones set up camp at Cheltenham for several weeks around late 1913. At 6.30am on 2 January 1914, he took off from Cheltenham Racecourse in his Caudron G II aircraft. After flying over the city he turned back to Cheltenham but veered off course to the north, before returning to his correct course. He ran out of petrol and was forced to make a crash landing in a paddock on the north side of Torrens Road. Extensive damage was done to the plane with both sides of the body crumpled, the chassis ruined, control wires and rudders twisted, and the skids and other woodwork snapped like matchwood. Jones' injuries were a strained left arm and cuts to his knees and mouth.

Carl Wilhelm (Bill) Wittber 1915
Following his work on the Bleriot XI in 1910, Wittber designed and built his own Farman style bi-plane, including constructing a six-cylinder radial engine (an Australian first). The plane was test flown by South Australian aviator Harry Butler at Smithfield, SA. It was the first aeroplane built and flown in South Australia. The authorities stopped all trials due to wartime conditions and the last flight made at Smithfield was early 1916. Wittber then lost all interest in aviation and burnt the fabric in his bathheater at Dulwich where he lived. This aircraft did not survive, but the engine survived and is on public display at the South Australian Aviation Museum.

Basil Watson 1917
Basil Watson was the first man to fly into Mount Gambier (Mount Gambier Racecourse) on 14th February 1917. The day was reported to be very wet and very unpleasant for the spectators and his demonstration flight was often lost in the low clouds. Watson left the next day, heading for Melbourne.

Harry Butler 1919
The first commercial flight in Australia was on 6 August 1919, when Harry Butler carried the mail by air from Adelaide to his home town of Minlaton on the Yorke Peninsula. The aircraft was a Bristol M1-C monoplane (called the Red Devil) that he had brought back from England after WW1. This was also the first commercial flight over sea in the Southern Hemisphere. Butler entertained crowds regularly with his flying, and large crowds gathered to watch him 'Jetty Jumping' at Henley Beach. This aircraft is on display at Minlaton (York Peninsula) and is believed to be the only aeroplane of its type remaining in the world.
More about Harry Butler: adb.anu.edu.au/biography/butler-henry-john-5446 [external website]

Hubert Wilkins 1919
Hubert Wilkins joined a five man crew hoping to claim a prize of £10,000 for the first flight from England to Australia by an Australian crew. Their plane was a Blackburn Kangaroo, a twin engine WW1 bomber. On December 8 1919 the port engine crankcase broke and lost its oil over water about 80 miles from Suda Bay, Crete. They reached the island but needed to turn on the faulty engine for manouvering. It exploded and many hot fragments penetrated the fuselage causing the pilot to attempt an emergency landing. Missing a village, but grazing the roof of the last house, they crashed into a field with a badly wrecked aircraft but all crew unharmed.

Jon Johanson 2003
In 1990, Jon Johanson purchased a Van's RV4 kit plane. He worked on it for two years (2,000 hours) and it was registered in 1992. He flew this homebuilt aicraft around the world three times. In 2003, he made the first solo flight in a single-engine home-built aircraft over the South Pole. After landing at the McMurdo-Scott base he became stranded when the base, not wishing to encourage future private flights, refused to sell him fuel. After a fuel donation by fellow adventurer Polly Vacher, he was able to fly on to Australia, via New Zealand.