Clement van Maasdijk

Summary

Reportage about a demonstration flight by aviator Clement van Maasdijk.

On July 31 and August 1, 1910, the Dutch aviator Clement van Maasdijk gave two flight demonstrations during Heerenveen’s ‘air week’. Van Maasdijk flew in a Sommer biplane that was powered by a Gnome engine with seven cylinders. The approximately three-minute film, made by Filmfabriek F.A. Nöggerath, shows how the biplane is piloted out of the hangar. Van Maasdijk gets in, and a mechanic tests the engine and rudder system. The next shot shows Van Maasdijk’s flight. At 7 o’clock, three hours after he took his Sommer out of the hangar, he makes a flight of exactly one minute and sixteen seconds at an altitude of thirty meters. We also see how the biplane lands on the grandstand of the former Thialf ice-rink. The next day, during his second flight over Heerenveen, Van Maasdijk achieved an altitude of 120 meters. After his landing, he was grandly honoured by about four thousand spectators.

Throughout the rest of August, Van Maasdijk gave demonstrations throughout the country. On August 27, 1910, he died when his plane crashed near Arnhem.