Jan Hilgers

Johan Willem Emile Louis Hilgers ( known when Jan Hilgers, born 19 December 1886 in Probolinggo, Indonesia, † July 21, 1945 at Ngawi, Indonesia) was a Dutch aviation pioneer.

Employment was Hilgers 1910 at the company Verwey and Lugard, an automotive company whose owners had great interest in flying and had therefore bought a Blériot XI. Their goal was to perform the first flight of a Dutchman in his own country and Johan Hilgers should be the pilot of this company. So sent him Verwey and Lugard in the Flight School by Louis Blériot to Pau to take flying lessons there. As Verwey and Lugard learned that Clément van Maasdijk preparing for a flight, they beorderten Hilgers immediately from France to the Netherlands.

On July 29, 1910 Johan Hilgers launched in Ede with the Blériot and was the first Dutchman to climb in an airplane in the Dutch airspace, although he had only learned the straight flight at the short introduction in France and the turning flight had not yet mastered.

With increasing experience Hilgers formed already in 1911 unofficially in the Maatschappij voor Luchtvaart, a company that had been founded in the same year by Verwey and Lugard, other drivers, although himself the official pilot's license was only granted on August 12, 1912 - Incidentally, the fourth pilot's license in the Netherlands.

Johan Hilgers developed the model " Verwey & Lugard ," a modified Bleriot XI by him for the Maatschappij voor Luchtvaart.

After the dissolution of the firm at the end of 1911 Hilgers was from 1912 a job as a test pilot at Fokker in Germany. His job there was the demonstration of the Fokker - models in front of potential customers abroad. So he led before a machine in Russia and then traveled with two machines according to the Dutch East Indies, later Indonesia to advertise to customers. Apparently, however, he was not particularly successful, anyway, is not handed over orders. But became known for a crash in the Dutch East Indies, the Hilgers survived.

Johan Hilgers no longer then returned to the Netherlands. He married in September 1913 in Bangi AnnaSophia Blijenburg, with whom he had six children later, and entered on May 30, 1914, employed by the predecessor organization of the Militaire Luchtvaart - Koninklijk Nederlands Indian Leger (ML- KNIL ), the Air Force Dutch East Indies, of.

In the war for the Dutch East Indies Hilgers fell into Japanese captivity and died on 21 July 1945 in a POW camp in Ngawi.

  • Aviation pioneer
  • Pilot
  • Netherlander
  • Born in 1886
  • Died in 1945
  • Man
December 19
430188
de