Grading - 248784

The Memorial to the Pioneers of Aviation, consisting of a symbolic monument designed by A P du Toit and replicas of the first hangar and Compton Paterson biplane, was erected on the site of the original airfield where Cecil Compton Paterson established South Africa's first flying school in 1913. Of the first 10 pupils only five passed. These flyers became the first pilots of the then newly formed South African Aviation Corps, which was the forerunner of the present South African Air Force.