Madras-based hotelier Giacomo D’Angelis built his own aircraft and tested it at Pallavaram. The Italian-born confectioner and hotelier had become interested in aviation after Louis Blériot’s 1909 flight across the English Channel and decided to build a machine of his own. D’Angelis had arrived in Madras in 1880 from Messina, Italy, and established himself in the city’s hospitality and confectionery business. He later ran Hotel D’Angelis on Mount Road, which became one of the city’s well-known hotels. His interest in aviation led him to experiment with a biplane at a time when powered flight was still a new technology.
D’Angelis designed the biplane and worked with Simpson’s
The aircraft was built from D’Angelis’s own designs. An account published in the aviation magazine ‘Flight’ in March 1910 described the machine as an aeroplane constructed for D’Angelis and said it had been built from his own design. Historical accounts link the construction of the aircraft to Simpson’s, one of Madras’s prominent engineering and coach-building firms. The company had a workshop in the city where the aircraft was constructed, with local workers involved in the process. The biplane was fitted with a small-horsepower engine. D’Angelis hoped that a more powerful engine would allow the aircraft to remain in the air for longer periods.
Pallavaram became the testing ground
After the aircraft was built, D’Angelis took it to Pallavaram for experiments. The area offered space for testing the machine and became associated with his early aviation efforts. The experiments were followed by a public demonstration at Island Grounds in March 1910. D’Angelis charged an entrance fee for people who wanted to watch the aircraft, and the event attracted a crowd interested in seeing the new machine.According to historical accounts, D’Angelis successfully flew the aircraft before the audience. He also offered people in the crowd an opportunity to accompany him. A young boy named Vasan volunteered to become a passenger. Accounts identify him as a boy who later worked in the Kolar Gold Fields. D’Angelis took him up in the aircraft during the demonstration.
Subramania Bharati also wrote about the aircraft
The aircraft and its construction also attracted the attention of Tamil writer and journalist Subramania Bharati. He wrote about the machine in the journal ‘India’. Accounts of Bharati’s writing describe the aircraft as a machine built in Madras, with the involvement of workers at Simpson’s. The episode also became part of the city’s early aviation history.The exact date associated with D’Angelis’s flight varies across historical accounts. Some sources give March 10, 1910, for the test flight at Pallavaram, while accounts of the public demonstration place the flight at Island Grounds on March 26. Because of the variation, the episode is best described as D’Angelis’s 1910 aircraft experiment and public demonstration rather than as a definitive “first flight”.
Madras saw more aviation experiments in the years that followed
D’Angelis’s experiment came only a few years after the Wright brothers’ powered flight and months after Blériot’s Channel crossing. More aviation demonstrations followed in Madras. In February 1911, Belgian aviator Jules Tyck conducted flights from Island Grounds. In 1914, civil engineer J.W. Madley assembled an aircraft and used it to take aerial photographs while assessing the Red Hills reservoir.Madras’s aviation history later moved beyond individual experiments. In 1915, Tata Air Mail began a regular airmail service between Karachi and Madras, while the Madras Flying Club was established in 1930. The 1910 experiment by D’Angelis was an early chapter in that transition, when aviation in Madras was still being explored through privately built aircraft and public flying demonstrations.
