| Description : After the prototype of the two‐seater Short Admiralty
type 135 seaplane with serial number 136 had taken part in the British attack on Cuxhaven on the 25th of
December 1914, it was transported to Malta by the aircraft mother ship HMS Ark Royal. There the seaplane,
piloted by Cecil Francis Kilner, took off from Grand Harbour in Vittoriosa on the 13th of February 1915 and
landed back in port after a flight of 55 minutes ‐ the flight marked the beginning of Maltese aviation. The
aircraft was then used at the Dardanelles to accompany ship convoys and to fight enemy submarines, armed with two 50 kg
torpedoes. However, the commemorative coin designed by Noel Galea Bason was inspired by a photograph of a similar
aircraft with serial number 320, depicted flying over the Fort St. Angelo fortress in Senglea. At the top is
the semi‐circular inscription "FIRST FLIGHT FROM MALTA" and on the right the dates "1915‐2015". At the bottom
left is the inscription "100TH ANNIVERSARY", below which are the initials "NGB" of the coin designer. The coin was
struck without a mint mark by the Royal Dutch mint Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt in Utrecht; specimens in coincards
bear their mint mark, a Hermes staff, between the 5 and 6 o'clock star. |
