Jan Olieslagers

JAN OLIESLAGERS
1883-1942
AKA Oehlschlager

Jan Olieslagers Collection of Dave Lam, 2-20-05

Jan Olieslagers and his Blériot
Signed by his own hand.
Shot in Holland
Text & Photo from Jean-Pierre Lauwers

Jan Olieslagers in his Blériot, 1909
Courtesy of Jean-Pierre Lauwers

JAN OLIESLAGERS AVIATION SCHOOL, 1909
translated into English from the French, 3-15-02
by Jean-Pierre Lauwers

Victor De Jonckheere was born at Zwevezele 1868 September 22.
1909 he went to that "Aviation week of Antwerp" and seeing Jan Olieslagers flying there he became a pupil of the Jan Olieslagers Aviation School at "St. Job in 't Goor".

Oehlschlager & Rawlinson
at Nice, April, 1910
Oehlschlager in his Blériot and above, Rawlinson in his Farman
Library of Congress Collection, 6-17-08

Jan Olieslagers, Max Olieslagers, and Willy Coppens d'Houthulst      The latter was a Belgian Air ace and close friend of Jan Olieslagers.
     The picture was taken at Antwerp Airport, at the Stampe and Vertongen works, in 1929 on the occasion of a meeting organized for Jan Olieslagers 20th anniversary of his first flight (in 1909).
     In the background is a Stampe Vertongen technician.
Contributed by Dirk Buytaert, 7-23-11

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
By email from Dave Lam, 1-25-03 Jan was born in Antwerp, Belgium, May 14, 1893. He earned Belgian license # 5 on March 31, 1910, in a Blériot.

ONLINE RESOURCES If you search for Jan Osliegers using Google, (7-30-11), you will find just one link. If you use Scroogle, you will find numerous links, many of them relevant. I don't understand what happened to Google. Just out of curiosity, I tried using Bing. It returned 4,950 links! Among the most helpful are the following. However, you will be rewarded by visiting some of the other links as time permits.

THE PIONEERS      This website offers a resumé of the history of aviation in Belgium from 1794 to 1996. Included in the story is the following paragraph which mentions Jan Olieslagers.

     "In 1910, the Aero-Club of Belgium organised a flying week in Brussels at the Stokkel Hippodrome. Eleven Belgian pilots were listed on the program :Pierre de Caters, Jan Olieslagers, Charles Van den Born, Joseph Christiaens, Jules Tyck, Jules de Laminne, Nicolas Kinet, Alphonse de Ridder, Leon Verstraeten, Joseph d'Hespel. and Alfred Lanser.
     Olieslagers established a new world record flying at a height of 1,524 metres."

THE GOLDEN BOOK This appears to be an entry point to a fabulous collection of photographs. The text is all in French which prevents me from understanding it very well. However, it seems to be a collection of pages from an album filled with pictures of early Belgian aviators and aeroplanes. You will be able to enlarge the picture of the Olieslagers' page. I suggest that you surf about the site, just to enjoy some of the other entries. You can access the site by clicking on the title.

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RECOMMENDED READING

GRANDE
ENCICLOPEDIA
AERONAUTICA

L. MANCINI

Product Details
Hard: 660 pages
Price: Out of Print - Used copies occasionally available online.
Publisher: EDIZIONI - AERONAUTICA 1936

TEL. 71 - 624 - MILANO - VIA GESU 6

Excerpt
Courtesy of Giovanni Giorgetti, 7-30-11 Italian

OLIESLANGER. - Aviatore belga che nel luglio 1910 a Reims, si aggiudicò i primati di distanza coprendo km. 392,750, di velocità percorrendo 300 km in 3 ore 47'33'' e 2/5 e di altezza salendo a 1720 metri. Il 17 luglio 1911 coprì 650 km. senza scalo in 7 ore e 18 minuti.

English

OLIESLANGER. - Belgian aviator who, in July 1910 in Reims (France), obtained distance records covering km 392,750, of speed covering 300 km in 3 hours 47'33'' and 2/5 and of height going up 1720 meters. In July 17, 1911 he covered 650 km non-stop in 7 hours and 18 minutes.

Jan Olieslagers died in 1942

Editor's Note:
If you have any information on this pioneer aviator
please contact me.
E-mail to Ralph Cooper

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