December 31, 1909
On New Year’s Eve, inventor and mechanic Henry Ferguson (1884-1960) became the first person to fly a heavier-than-air aircraft in Ireland. This pioneering flight took place in the village and civil parish of Hillsborough, which is 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of the city of Belfast in what is now officially known as Northern Ireland.
Ferguson, who had been born in this region of Ireland, worked with his brother Joseph Bell Ferguson (1880-1967) to design the aircraft used for that flight. This monoplane was outfitted with a nine-cylinder engine created by the British engineering equipment firm J.A. Prestwich and Company.
The Irish Independent reported on the flight a few days after it had occurred. This newspaper noted, “Although a strong wind was blowing, Mr. Ferguson rose into the air some twelve feet [3.7 meters], and covered a distance of 130 yards [118.9 meters] before alighting.”
In its own account of the flight, the London-based Guardian likewise emphasized the presence and potential perils of windy conditions in Hillsborough on that Friday. “The weather conditions on Friday were not good, for there was a gusty wind of 25 miles [40 kilometers] an hour,” reported this newspaper, “but the aeroplane behaved well, and came to earth safely.”
(The accompanying photo depicts a Hillsborough-based memorial sculpture of Ferguson aboard his aircraft.)
Photo Credit: Harry Ferguson sculpture, Hillsborough (2) by Albert Bridge (https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/5835) – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
For more information on Harry Ferguson, please check out https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Harry_Ferguson
Additional information on the Ferguson monoplane is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_monoplane
Transportation History 
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