The story of the Aero Club began on an August day in 1928 when two former World War 1 fliers decided to form such a club in Newcastle. Captain HS Preston and Captain LH Irwin wanted to bring the city into line with others where facilities were already being developed for the youthful aviation industry.
New administrative offices and workshop were occupied in June 1938, and the whole of the Club's flying, administrative, maintenance and social activities were now housed under one roof.
At the conclusion of the war, the Aero Club began picking up the threads and re organisation for the post-war re-birth of the Aero Club became of prime importance.
During 1950 the Aero Club passed another milestone when it was admitted to the Aero Club Federation at the Annual Conference held at Adelaide in South Australia.
In 1960 a Cessna 182 joined the fleet, the first of a large number of Cessna aircraft, a type that would continue to serve the Club for many years. It was followed shortly after by a Cessna 172 but was badly damaged soon after arrival in an unfortunate accident, but was replaced eventually by more of these fast metal aircraft.
In 1971 a big air show was staged to celebrate the 40th birthday of the Tiger Moth. The Tiger Moth had become a much sought after vintage aircraft in the seventies and the aero Club still operated one Tiger Moth, VH-ALH (later changed to RNI), in the fleet and had the facilities, spares, and engineers with the expertise to restore and maintain this early machine.
During this year Club Vice President, Ivan Blair, was awarded the Royal Federation of Aero Club's medal for services to the Aero Club. Later in the year he was appointed as Manager of the Aero Club.
During 1980, a large scale Field Day sponsored by NBN-TV, saw 11,000 members of the public view the Australian Aerobatic Team in action before their departure for America and the World Titles.
During the early nineties the major events continued, the 1990 and '92 - Air Shows and Tiger Moth air races were well attended. Don Moor and Bernie Sarroff were made honorary life members.
The opening of this period saw great confidence with the ramp-up of University flying. This resulted in the Board, under the leadership of Bernie Sarroff, upgrading runway 23, sealing the car park, buying new aircraft including a new Piper Archer 3, and appointing Bill Hilder as General Manager.
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