The pioneer pilot, who crossed the skies of Israel for the first time, even before the establishment of the state, was not Jewish. December 27, 1913. Exactly ten years and ten days after the pioneers of aviation (the Wright brothers) first flew an airplane, a mustachioed Frenchman landed on the sands of the northern coast of Jaffa. Revered by his people, an aviation pioneer in his country, Monsieur Jules Vedrines, and he 32 years old.