Short Biography
- 1882
- J. Christiaens was born near Brussels in Belgium.
- 1905
- August 13th, he takes part in the first "Coupe de Liedekerke" near Dinant on a NAG,
(4 laps of 102,740km), and gives up.
- 1908
- May 30th, he sees M. Farman flying on a biplane built by the Voisin brothers in Gand.
- 1909
- 1910
- March, J. Christiaens is at Camp de Chalons, where he learns to fly on a Farman plane with Géo Chavez.
- April 12th, he is registered with licence N°7. He is one of the 11 pilots registered at the
Belgian Aéro-Club.
- June, 19th to 26th he's at the Grande Semaine de Rouen with a Farman plane, Gnome 50 engine, where
he touches a substantial prize. (on a post card: champion of the Cannes meetings, Mondort and
Saint-Petersbourg; world speed record holder.)
- Juillet, 3rd to 17th at the Grande Semaine de Reims, he is registered as N°37 with a Farman plane,
Gnome engine. (He appears on a post card during this contest, as the passenger on an Antoinette biplane,
piloted by Latham.)
- July and August, from the 23rd to the 4th, he is at the contest of the belgian Aéro-Club in Bruxelles,
his plane is destroyed before take off.
- Septembre 23rd, J.Christiaens, a great friend of Chavez, oversees the planning of his flight over
the Alps with his Blériot plane.
- unknown date, takes part in the Grande Quinzaine of Aviation of Bruxelles-Stockel.
- 1911
- March, 16th he completes the first flight over Singapour. (others speak of Van den Born).
(source Aviation Landscape in Singapore)
- August, He was in South Africa to do demonstrations and sell 1 to 3 Bristol Box-Kite. The first,
n°28 to Dr John Weston, the second was no doubt n°27 and the last was used for parts.
The Bristol Box-Kite (66 were built) were designed by Sir George White, (inspired by Farman).
(He probably worked for the British & Colonial Aeroplane Company, Bristol n°27 july 10th, 1910).
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- 1912
- Takes part in numerous hillclimbing races in France and in Belgium.
- March 27th to April 3rd,he participates with a Farman at the Hydroplane contest in Monaco, won by
Jules Fischer, one of his compatriots.
- Juin 26th, he takes part in the "Grand Prix de France de l'Automobile Club de France", one of the
most important races of that time (1539Km), which was held at Dieppe. He finishes in 6th place with
his 6 cylinder Excelsior.
- November, 15th on the Brooklands circuit, he breaks the world record of the
50 mile on his 6 cylinder "Excelsior".
- 1913
- Mai 13th & 14th, on his 6 cylinder Excelsior J.Christiaens wins the
Bruxelles - Saint Petersbourg race, after which he sells his Excelsior to the russian driver
H. Slupsky, who will with this car end up racing numerous times until the revolution.
- June, he purchases the new 1913 model 6 cylinder Excelsior.
- July, 12th he wins 8th place with his new vehicle at the "Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France"
at Amiens, 916,98km (31,62x29 laps).
- August, 5th he takes part in the Grand Prix de France.
- unknown date, he participates in the Tour de France Automobile on the 6 cylindres "Excelsior"
- 1914
- He races with a Sunbeam at the 500 mile race in Indianapolis, USA, He finishes 6th.
- 1916
- June, 11th in Chicago, he starts the race with his car in the front line next to Rickenbaker and Resta.
(post card & small poster of Montaut)
- September, first foreigner to enter the Indianapolis Motor Speedway "Harvest Classic" with his Sunbeam racecar.
- 1919
- February, 2nd Joseph Christiaens dies in an accident while testing his car in England.
On his post-mortem, "He is an engineer, racer, aviator"
PS: We reserve the few aviation photographs of Christiaens for an upcoming exposition, which will
be for the most part devoted to 2 giants of aviation history: Louis Blériot and Géo Chavez.
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