South Africa's aviation story began just six years after the Wright brothers' historic flight in 1903. On 28 December 1909, French aviator Albert Kimmerling made the first airplane flight in Africa, taking off from the Nahoon Racetrack in East London in a Voisin biplane. He repeated the flight on 1 January 1910, though this attempt ended in a minor crash — the first airplane crash recorded in South Africa.

Kimmerling didn't stop there. He moved the aircraft to what was then the Transvaal, making three more flights at Sydenham Hill near Orange Grove in Johannesburg, and on 19 March 1910 flew South Africa's first fare-paying passenger, Thomas Thornton of the South African Aero Club, who paid £100 for the trip.

South Africa's homegrown aviation efforts had started even before Kimmerling’s flight. Civil engineer John Weston began building the country's first South African-made aeroplane in 1907 at Brandfort in the Free State, later fitting it with a more powerful engine in France. On 16 June 1911, Weston flew this aircraft near Kimberley, setting a South African non-stop flight record of eight-and-a-half minutes - the first flight by a South African in a South African-built machine.

Together, Kimmerling and Weston laid the foundations of a rapidly growing aviation culture, one that would soon produce South Africa's own air corps and, eventually, its air force.