High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Eric Harrison (10 August 1886 – 5 September 1945) was an Australian aviator who made the country`s first military flight, and helped lay the foundations of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Born in Victoria, he was a flying instructor in Britain when he answered the Australian Defence Department`s call for pilots in 1911. Along with Henry Petre, he established Australia`s first air base at Point Cook, Victoria, and its inaugural air training facility, the Central Flying School (CFS), before making his historic flight in March 1914. Following the outbreak of World War I, when Petre went on active service with the newly formed Mesopotamian Half Flight, Harrison took charge of instruction at CFS and was responsible for training many pilots of the Australian Flying Corps. He transferred to the RAAF as one of its founding members in 1921, and reached the rank of Group Captain in 1935. Retiring from the Air Force in 1938, he continued to serve as Director of Aeronautical Inspection in a civilian capacity until his sudden death from heart disease in 1945, aged fifty-nine.