Samuel W. Hecker with his Gipsy Moth ‘Diana’

📷: Samuel W. Hecker with his Gipsy Moth ‘Diana’

15 October 1932; J.T.Harrison; Temora Aviation Museum; TAM2016.10

Temora’s first airman was Samuel William Hecker. In June 1931 Hecker purchased a ‘perfectly delicious’ de Havilland Gipsy Moth VH-UIH he named ‘Diana’. Just shy of 9 hours solo flying Hecker flew her home from Mascot to Temora’s first airstrip on the Hecker family farm.

‘Diana’ was the first aircraft to be flown beneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The feat was undertaken by the machine’s previous owner Captain Patrick Gordon Taylor a few months prior to Hecker’s purchase. Taylor undertook the stunt as a duet with Reginald Annabel, also at the helm of a Gypsy Moth.

In 1932 Hecker moved with Dianna to Maryborough Queensland where they have been immortalised for their aviation feats as part of the Maryborough Mural Project.

Submitted by Anna Gebels