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04/30/2007. The AURI (Angkatan Udara Republik Indonesia, Republic of Indonesia Air Force) formed the Biro Rencana dan Konstruksi (Planning and Construction Bureau) at Yogyakarta, Java in 1946. A workshop at Magetan was started by the officers Wiweko Soepono, Nurtanio Pringgoadisurjo, and J. Sumarsono. The first products were gliders like the NGW-1 (Nurtanio Wiweko Glider), of which at least six were built. In 1948 the first powered aircraft was designed and built by Wiweko Soepono, the WEL-1 (Wiweko Experimental Lightplane). Driven by a second-hand 750 cc Harley Davidson motorcycle engine it flew the first time on October 27, 1948. In 1981 Wiweko built two flying replica's powered by a VW Revmaster; one is at the Yogyakarta aviation museum, the other at the Satrya aviation museum. Wiweko Soepono, born on January 18, 1923, was a leading aviation figure since the proclamation of the Republic of Indonesia on August 17, 1945. But already in the Dutch colonization period, before WW II, while still at secondary school he designed and built model aircraft and later adhered the predicate of Mr. Aeromodelling Indonesia. He was the founder of the Bandungsche Jongens Luchtvaart Club (Bandung Aero Club for Boys). Apart from aircraft design and construction he played an important role in the founding of the Garuda Indonesian Airways, established at Myanmar on January 26, 1949. Between 1968 and 1984 Wiweko was president of Garuda and during this time the Indonesian flag carrier became the largest airline on the southern hemisphere and the second largest company in Asia. Wiweko Soepono is seen by many Indonesians as one of the fathers of the Indonesian aviation industrie, and from that point of view compared with Anthony Fokker. Actually Anthony Fokker's birthplace Kediri, Java, was only a few miles north of Wiweko's birthplace at Blitar, Java. Wiweko Soepono died at the age of 77 in Jakarta on September 8, 2000.