Mr. Bernard Ho Dac
"...I really admire and think about how my father used to tinker with airplanes with his skillful hands and perseverance. I believe that Vietnamese people are creative people, and when faced with a challenge, they think of ways to overcome it...".
The man with silver hair and an elegant face said the above words in French emotionally, during an exchange with students of the Ho Chi Minh City Aviation Academy at the end of October 2024.
This year, 67 years old, with Vietnamese and French blood, Mr. Bernard Ho Dac visited Vietnam for the first time, very happy to discover many interesting and strange things of his fatherland. On the contrary, those who met him were surprised to hear the story of a Vietnamese family passionate about invention, passionate about creativity in many adversities...
When you are born, you must be determined, have ambition, and persistently seek out good things and new things...
Mr. HO DAC CUNG
Aviation Academy students met Mr. Bernard Ho Dac on October 24, 2024
They were wrong...
Mr. Bernard has a high, Western nose, bright eyes, a gentle demeanor, and a hint of Asian beauty. In early October, when we met at a cafe in Paris after the launch of my book about ancient Indochina, he told me he was going to Vietnam and wanted to learn more about his family and hometown.
He showed me pictures of his father who had passed away 40 years earlier. In the picture was a slim young Vietnamese man, smiling excitedly, holding a large airplane propeller in his hand...
That year - 1933 - in Saigon, there was a young man who started to realize his dream of flying in the sky of his country with his own airplane. At that time or now, this was still a very fanciful and difficult dream to achieve.
Indeed, at that time Vietnam was a colony, the French had only brought in a few air force squadrons, even in Europe and America, amateur flying and "playing with airplanes" was still in its infancy.
On the other hand, building an airplane requires a precise workshop and suitable human resources. Yet, the young man Ho Dac Cung, born into a farming family in Cai Lay, Tien Giang, studied electrical engineering in France, and returned to Saigon to work, was still determined to do this.
Mr. Ho Dac Kinh and Mr. Bernard Ho Dac with the author in front of the statue of Tran Hung Dao
However, when he finished the plane's frame, Mr. Cung could not find an engine in Indochina, so he had to order an engine from France, but he did not have enough money. Necessity is the mother of invention, so Mr. Cung boldly asked the press for donations from people who shared the same passion.
Unfortunately, at that time, there was no concept and method of crowdfunding to support startups and inventors like today. The press at that time reported: Mr. Cung only raised a total of 17 Indochinese piastres.
In desperation, he boldly wrote a letter to directly lobby King Bao Dai , and gratefully received 300 coins from the young king who loved sports and modern technology.
So with the king's sponsorship, friends and family's money, Mr. Cung bought a Harley Davidson motorcycle engine to install in the plane. And then, despite many people's doubts and ridicule, Ho Dac Cung piloted the "sky bug" and took off on October 26, 1935.
The first flight of the "made in Vietnam" aircraft took place successfully at Tan Son Nhat , which was then still a simple airport, and he later conducted test flights at several other places in the South. He can be considered a pioneer civil pilot in Indochina.
In 1936, during a flight, Mr. Cung had an accident and had to make an emergency landing in the forest. Perhaps because of this accident and because he did not receive continued support in the manufacture and improvement of aircraft, he switched to house construction. After that, he went to France to continue opening an engineering company, then went to Tunisia - North Africa to participate in oil and gas drilling projects.
Before passing away in 1984, Mr. Cung often told stories about his hometown, ancestors, and career to his two sons. He taught them that when they go out into the world, they must be determined, have ambitions, and seek out good and new things.
He always advised his son not to be discouraged, if someone criticized what he did, he should consider it an opportunity to review his work, and from there prove that he did it right and could do it. Mr. Bernard always remembered what his father said, there were French people with colonial mentality, used to discriminate against native people.
They called Mr. Cung's plane "the iron" because of its shape and insisted that it could only run on the runway and not take off. However, by flying his homemade plane into the sky, he proved them wrong and that the Vietnamese people could not be underestimated!
Bernard brothers visit Thu Thiem temple, pay respects to ancestors
Vietnamese people have been inventors and creators throughout history. That bloodline is still flowing in contemporary generations and needs to be nurtured and awakened to grow stronger.
Mr. BERNARD HO DAC
Blood of the brave and compassionate
Mr. Bernard showed me the picture of the altar of his grandparents, which his father had respectfully arranged at home. Having lived in France for decades, Mr. Cung still passed on his ancestors' customs and culture to his children and grandchildren every day and every hour.
He advised: "We are Vietnamese, we must not accept the word Annamites imposed by the colonialists". Although they have the same father but different mothers, Bernard and his brother are close and support each other. Now, Bernard's brother, engineer Ho Dac Kinh, is 93 years old, after 75 years away from his homeland, not afraid of old age to follow his younger brother back to Vietnam.
On October 16, two brothers - the sons of Mr. Ho Dac Cung - set foot on Saigon, looking back at memories related to their father. Seeing them walking together, everywhere I saw Mr. Bernard carefully holding his brother's hand when approaching low steps or precarious places where they could easily fall.
One of the first places in the city the two men wanted to visit was the Charner garage - a famous French-era car repair shop. That was where Mr. Dac Kinh was "assigned" by his father to learn car repair when he was only 10 years old.
Mr. Kinh asked where Charner shopping mall was because he vaguely remembered that Charner garage was right next to it. Alas, that shopping mall was now just an empty lot, and the garage building was still there but had been turned into a restaurant belonging to Kim Do Hotel on Nguyen Hue Boulevard. When they were taken there, the two men were surprised by the completely different scene.
But coincidentally, as if someone from above was blessing him, a manager friend said that his father used to be a mechanic at Charner garage and confirmed that the two of them had come to the right place. Hearing that, Mr. Dac Kinh was very happy, thinking that he had met the shadow of his father as well as himself from long ago.
Visiting the city, Mr. Bernard always asked me not only about his father's "fairy tale" but also interested in many historical issues, past and present. Arriving at Bach Dang wharf, looking at the statue of Tran Hung Dao, hearing about the feat of defeating the Yuan-Mongol army three times, he exclaimed: "Vietnamese people are really tough".
Cong Luan newspaper reported that Mr. Ho Dac Cung was also the first Vietnamese person to test parachuting from an airplane at an altitude of 600m (Cong Luan newspaper, Saigon, September 28, 1936).
When visiting Thu Thiem Temple, he was surprised to see that there was also an altar to Saint Tran. He and his brother asked permission to burn incense and respectfully bow to the heroic ancestors. Both of them, while visiting the Museum of Fine Arts and the City Museum - the former Gia Long Palace, asked me many specific historical details that they had been studying for a long time.
Mr. Bernard said that since he was young, he had heard and learned a lot about the Dien Bien Phu battle and General Vo Nguyen Giap. Many people in France always remember that glorious battle and that talented person!
Bernard and his brother spent three days visiting their paternal home in Ba Dua village, Long Trung commune, Cai Lay district and touring Can Tho. Although tired, both were very excited to see and learn more about their homeland and family history.
Mr. Bernard showed me photos of his neighbors, the family church, the genealogy, the cemetery and especially the land where his father was born. It was very interesting that the ancestor of the Ho Dac family came from the Central region to reclaim and establish a new land in the 18th century, and is still remembered and worshiped by the villagers today.
Mr. Ho Dac Cung once told his son about his great-grandfather's advice that the family must share much of the profits with the tenant farmers - those who rented land to cultivate. Is it possible that the pioneering nature and mutual love of our ancestors have fostered people who are passionate about invention and love their country like Mr. Ho Dac Cung?
In Ho Chi Minh City, the Bernard brothers also organized a meeting with students of the aeronautical engineering department of the Polytechnic University and students of many majors of the Aviation Academy.
You all expressed interest in hearing the story of the first Vietnamese person to build an airplane nearly a hundred years ago, and asked many questions about technology and the future of the aviation industry.
Although only working in the construction field, with his extensive knowledge of the world as well as high technology, Mr. Bernard sincerely shared with you a lot of useful knowledge.
He himself is a famous inventor in the field of using photosensitive technology to assess the life of bridges, railways, and high-rise buildings. He is currently the General Director of OMOS Group and President of the French Invention and Patent Federation (SYNNOV).
In an intimate way, Mr. Bernard said that although he lives in France, he always thinks about Vietnam. He is happy when foreigners are surprised and sometimes even jealous of the talent and will of the Vietnamese people.
According to Mr. Bernard, Vietnamese people have been innovators throughout history. That bloodline is still flowing in contemporary generations and needs to be nurtured and awakened so that it can grow forever!
Listening to Mr. Bernard speak openly to the students, I secretly hope that there will be more creative "successors" of the Vietnamese people to continue to add to the fire, to form a strong flow, to connect generations, to together build a peaceful Vietnam and rise to greater heights than ever in the 21st century, overcoming the pain and loss that the entire nation had to endure in the previous century.
Cong Luan newspaper reported that Mr. Ho Dac Cung was also the first Vietnamese person to test parachuting from an airplane at an altitude of 600m (Cong Luan newspaper, Saigon, September 28, 1936).
Mr. Bernard showed me pictures and press reports about Mr. Cung building a wooden plane modeled after the Pou du Ciel - Sky Beetle by engineer Henri Mignet.
Looking up Google, we can know that Mr. Mignet himself was originally a French radio engineer but is a world-famous aircraft inventor. He was self-taught and put a lot of effort into making small planes for many people with the same hobby of conquering the sky.
In 1931, Mr. Mignet published the drawings of the aircraft in a book published in Paris. Surely from that "secret", Mr. Cung got the idea to try to build an aircraft of this model. Mr. Bernard's brother still remembers when he was a child, he saw his father working day and night to smooth the propeller and many other parts of the aircraft.
Trang An newspaper, issue 75, published on November 15, 1935, reported: "There is news from Saigon that Mr. Ho Dac Cung's small plane called "Ran Troi" flew with him at Tan Son Nhat airport one afternoon recently. The plane flew very high, both taking off and landing as planned.
It took several repairs to get it to this point. The first time, Mr. Cung tried it at Tan Son Nhat airport, the propeller was spinning but it couldn't take off because the rope holding the wings was shaking. The second time, on October 26, the plane took off, but while climbing, it suddenly nosedived, almost killing Mr. Cung.
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