The Oswald Watt Gold Medal is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n aviation

Aviation

Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...

 award named for Oswald Watt

Oswald Watt

Walter Oswald Watt OBE was an Australian aviator and businessman. The son of a Scottish-Australian merchant and politician, he was born in England and came to Sydney when he was a year old. He returned to Britain at the age of eleven for education at Bristol and Cambridge...

 (1878–1921) a decorated pilot in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

It originated in 1921 after the death of Oswald Watt and is awarded for "A most brilliant performance in the air or the most notable contribution to aviation by an Australian or in Australia" by the Royal Federation of Aero Clubs of Australia. As it is awarded on merit it is not an annual award, between the award's creation and 2004 it had been awarded a total of 48 times.

Recipients

The recipients include:

• Francis Stewart Briggs, 1921.
• H. T. Shaw, 1922.
• Flight Lieutenant Ivor McIntyre
  Ivor McIntyre
  Ivor Ewing McIntyre CBE, AFC & Bar was a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force . He came to national attention in 1924 when he and Wing Commander Stanley Goble became the first men to circumnavigate Australia by air...
  
   twice; 1924 and 1926.
• E. J. Jones, 1925.
• Bert Hinkler
  Bert Hinkler
  Herbert John Louis Hinkler AFC DSM , better known as Bert Hinkler, was a pioneer Australian aviator and inventor. He designed and built early aircraft before being the first person to fly solo from England to Australia, and the first person to fly solo across the Southern Atlantic Ocean...
  
   four times; 1927, 1928, 1931 and 1932.
• Sir Charles Kingsford Smith
  Charles Kingsford Smith
  Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith MC, AFC , often called by his nickname Smithy, was an early Australian aviator. In 1928, he earned global fame when he made the first trans-Pacific flight from the United States to Australia...
  
   four times; 1929, 1930, 1933 and 1934.
• Harry Frank (Jim) Broadbent, 1935.
• Edgar Percival
  Edgar Percival
  Edgar Wikner Percival was a noted Australian aircraft designer and pilot whose aircraft were distinguished by speed and grace. Percival went on to set up the Percival Aircraft Company, a British aircraft company in his own name.-Early years:...
  
  , 1936.
• Dr. Clyde Fenton
  Clyde Fenton
  Dr Clyde Fenton was the Northern Territory's first flying doctor. Unlike the other doctors with the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, Clyde was also his own pilot. Fenton was a self taught pilot, and flew without the aid of any navigation equipment, air charts, and often proper landing...
  
  , 1937.
• Don Bennett
  Don Bennett
  Air Vice Marshal Donald Clifford Tyndall Bennett CB CBE DSO RAF was an Australian aviation pioneer and bomber pilot who rose to be the youngest Air Vice-Marshal in the Royal Air Force. He led the "Pathfinder Force" from 1942 to the end of the Second World War in 1945...
  
  , 1938.
• Squadron Leader Harold Brownlow Martin, 1947.
• Martin Warner, 1950.
• Patrick Gordon Taylor
  Patrick Gordon Taylor
  Sir Patrick Gordon Taylor GC MC OBE was an Australian aviator and author. He was born at Mosman, Sydney, and died in Honolulu....
  
  , 1951.
• Squadron Leader P. G. Fisher, 1952.
• Wing Commander Derek "Jell" Cuming, 1953.
• Mervyn Waghorn, 1954.
• Sir Donald Anderson, 1957.
• Squadron Leader D.W Leckie, 1958.
• A.E Chadwick, 1959.
• Brigadier Guy N Moore, 1960.
• Henry Millicer
  Henry Millicer
  Henry K. Millicer, born Henryk Kazimierz Milicer , was a Polish-Australian aircraft designer and pilot....
  
  , 1962.
• Edward Connellan
  Edward Connellan
  Edward John Connellan AO, CBE was an Australian aviator who founded Connellan Airways and was a pioneer of aviation in the Northern Territory.-Early life:...
  
  , 1964.
• Harry Schneider, 1966.
• Sir Hudson Fysh
  Hudson Fysh
  Sir Wilmot Hudson Fysh KBE, DFC was an Australian aviator and businessman. A founder of the Australian airline company Qantas, Fysh was born in Launceston, Tasmania. Serving in the Battle of Gallipoli and Palestine Campaign as a lieutenant of the Australian Light Horse Brigade, Fysh later became...
  
  , 1967.
• George Alfred (Peter) Lloyd, 1969.
• Horrie Miller
  Horrie Miller (aviator)
  Horace Clive "Horrie" Miller OBE was a pioneer Australian aviator and co-founder of MacRobertson Miller Airlines .Miller was born in Ballarat, Victoria....
  
  , 1972.
• Sir Norman Brearley
  Norman Brearley
  Sir Norman Brearley CBE was a commercial and military pilot and one of the pioneers of the airline industry within Australia.-Aviation career:...
  
  , 1973.
• Sir Lawrence Wackett
  Lawrence Wackett
  Sir Lawrence James Wackett KBE, DFC, AFC is widely regarded as "father of the Australian aircraft industry". He has been described as "one of the towering figures in the history of Australian aviation covering, as he did, virtually all aspects of activities: pilot, designer of airframes and...
  
  , 1974.
• Sir Reg Ansett
  Reg Ansett
  Sir Reginald Myles "Reg" Ansett KBE was an Australian businessman and aviator; best known for founding Ansett Transport Industries Limited, which owned one of Australia's two leading domestic airlines between 1957 and 2001...
  
  , 1975.
• Clive Canning
  Thorp T-18
  The Thorp T-18 Tiger is a two-place, all-metal, plans-built, homebuilt aircraft designed in 1963 by John Thorp.The aircraft was originally designed as an open cockpit aircraft, powered by a military surplus Lycoming O-290G ground power unit engine, but evolved into a fully bubble canopied aircraft...
  
  , 1976.
• Bill Moyes, 1980 .
• Jon Johanson
  Jon Johanson
  Jon Johanson is a world-record setting Australian aviator. He is well known for his pioneering flights in a home-built Van's Aircraft RV-4. Johanson is a qualified nurse, midwife, carpenter and air-transport pilot.-Flights:...
  
  , 1995.
• Shirley Adkins, 1996.
• Bernie Sarroff, 1997.
• Dr Andrew (Andy) Thomas
  Andy Thomas
  Andrew "Andy" Sydney Withiel Thomas is an Australian-born American aerospace engineer and a NASA astronaut. He became a U.S. citizen in December 1986, hoping to gain entry to NASA's astronaut program...
  
  , 1998.
• Paul D. Scully-Power
  Paul D. Scully-Power
  Paul Desmond Scully-Power AM is an American oceanographer. While a civilian employee of the United States Naval Undersea Warfare Center, he flew aboard NASA Space Shuttle mission STS-41-G as a Payload Specialist. He was the first Australian-born person to journey into space.-Personal :Scully-Power...
  
  , 1999 .
• Ian Honnery