Joseph Joel Hammond (1886 – 22 September 1918) was a pioneering New Zealand aviator. On 17 January 1914 at Epsom showgrounds he took New Zealand's first military plane, a Blériot XI-2, for its first flight.
Early life
Born in Feilding in the Manawatu District of the North Island of New Zealand, on 19 July 1886. He grew up on his family's farm at Rangitikei. He attended Campbell Street School in Palmerston North, then, during 1899–1901, St Patrick's College, Wellington.
At the age of 18 he left New Zealand for Australia in late 1904. After briefly working on a sheep station, he travelled via Hawaii to work as a gold prospector on the Klondike in Canada. When gold mining proved unprofitable he trapped animals in Alaska before heading south and spending much of 1905 working on a cattle ranch near Phoenix in Arizona.
He left the United States on 20 November, returning to New Zealand for a brief holiday before he returned to the United States via Sydney, Fiji and Hawaii, arriving in Vancouver, Canada on 9 April 1908. He traveled south to the United States and eventually joined William F. Cody, aka Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and exhibited his horsemanship. Cody's final European tour had ended in 1907 and, in 1908, he and Pawnee Bill, another showman, joined forces and created the "Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Pawnee Bill's Great Far East", popularly known as the "Two Bill's" show. After six months with the "Two Bill’s" show, he left in 1908 and toured much of Europe, apparently using the East Sussex seaside town of Seaford as a base. It was while here that he married Ethelwyn Wilkinson, a local woman in 1909.
Enters aviation
Excited by the development of aviation Hammond obtained some flying tuition from Léon Delagrange, probably at Reims. In July 1910 after attending the second of the famous annual Reims flying meetings, Hammond obtained further instruction from Henri Molla at the Sanchez-Besa school at Mourmelon (Camp de Châlons). As a result, shortly after his marriage Hammond was able to gain from the Aéro-Club de France his French Aviators Certificate (No.258) on 4 October 1910, flying a Sanchez-Besa Biplane. In so doing he became the first New Zealander to obtain a flying certificate. Returning to England he was granted Royal Aero Club aviators certificate 32 on 22 November 1910, after demonstrating his skill flying a Bristol Boxkite at Salisbury Plain.
His new qualifications allowed him to obtain a position as a salesman and demonstration pilot with the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company (later known as the Bristol Aeroplane Company) which was manufacturing the Bristol Boxkite.
Flights in Australia
The company sent Hammond (accompanied by his wife, Sydney E. Smith, the company's manager, mechanic/pilot Leslie F. Macdonald and a staff of mechanics as well as two Boxkites to Australia in an attempt to interest the Australian government in purchasing aircraft for military reconnaissance. Had they were successful, the intention was to establish a factory in Melbourne to build the planes. They disembarked from the R.M.S. Omrah in Fremantle on 13 13 December 1910 and transferred to Perth. After assembling machine No. 10 Hammond made the first aircraft flight in West Australia from Perth's Belmont Park Racecourse on 3 January 1911.
Hammond made the final of the seven flights he made in Perth on 12 January 1911, after which the aircraft was dismantled and shipped to Melbourne.
Setting up their flight headquarters in Altona, a suburb of Melbourne and reassembling an aircraft, Hammond on 18 February 1911, undertook the aircraft aloft for his first flight in Victoria. On 20 February 1911, he flew from Altona to Geelong and landed on the Geelong Racecourse, taking 55 minutes to cover 42 miles (67.6 km). The following day Hammond returned to Altona, having made the first cross-country flights in Australia.
On 23 February, also from Altona, Hammond made the first passenger flight in Australia, taking Frank Coles, one of the Bristol mechanics, for a 7½ minute flight. Later that same day he took his wife, Ethelwyn for a 12½ minute flight, making her the first woman to fly in Australia.
On 2 March 1911, local businessman M. H. Baillieu paid to be taken for a flight. This circular journey was the first paid charter flight and also the first carrying an Australian citizen as a passenger. On 26 March 1911 Hammond flew with both Leslie McDonald and mechanic Coles as passengers to demonstrate the weight carrying performance of the Boxkite. This was the first multiple passenger flight in Australia. Hammond made a total of 40 flights in Melbourne before the team relocated to Sydney.