Arthur Herbert Affleck (3 July 1903 – 11 September 1966) was a

Qantas Qantas ( ), formally Qantas Airways Limited, is the flag carrier of Australia, and the largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations in Australia and List of largest airlines in Oceania, Oceania. A foundi ...

pilot who was the first pilot of the

Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), commonly known as the Flying Doctor, is an Aeromedical retrieval, aeromedical retrieval service in Australia and the largest of its kind in the world. It is a non-profit organisation that provides urgen ...

in 1928. Affleck was born at

Brighton, Victoria Brighton is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 11 km south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Bayside Local government areas of Victo ...

on 3 July 1903. He worked in a bank for two years and joined the

Royal Australian Air Force The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal Air force, aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the Governor-Gener ...

(RAAF) in 1923, with the wish to become trained as a commercial pilot. After six months as a clerk with the RAAF he was selected for training as a Civil Aviation Cadet. In 1925, having received his pilot's wings, he left the RAAF and joined Australian Aerial Services Ltd. In 1927 he joined Qantas. On 17 May 1928 he flew the surgeon Dr Kenyon Welch from

Cloncurry, Queensland Cloncurry is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia. It is informally known by local people as The Curry. Cloncurry is the administrative centre of the Shire of Cloncurry. Cloncurry is known as the ''Friend ...

Julia Creek, Queensland Julia Creek is an outback town and locality in the Shire of Mckinlay, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Julia Creek had a population of 549 people. The town of Oorindi is within the west of the locality () beside the Oorindi rai ...

in a

de Havilland DH.50 The de Havilland DH.50 was a 1920s British large single-engined biplane transport built by de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome, Edgware, and licence-built in Australia, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia. History In the early 1920s, Geoffrey de Hav ...

. This was the first flight of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. In 1936 Affleck became a Flying Inspector with the Civil Aviation branch of the Defence Department. In 1959 he became regional director of civil aviation for Papua New Guinea. In 1963, aged 60, he retired, moved to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and published his autobiography ''The Wandering Years''. On 11 September 1966 he died while on a cruise on the '' Orsova'' off the coast of

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Affleck, Arthur Herbert 1903 births 1966 deaths Aviators from Melbourne Royal Australian Air Force officers Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia people Qantas people Australian commercial aviators People from Brighton, Victoria Military personnel from Melbourne

See also

References