Keith Allison Virtue MBE (23 June 1909 – 7 February 1980) was a pioneer Australian aviator. Sir Lawrence Wackett, in the foreword of Keith Virtue's biography, writes that he was an experienced airman himself but he marvelled at the ability and skill of Keith Virtue and counts him as one of the greatest of the Australians who devoted their life's work to the task of pioneering airlines in Australia. Early life Keith Virtue was born in Lismore, New South Wales, the son of an Irish-born dairyfarmer. He was the youngest of 13 children of Robert and Jane Virtue (née Noble). His obsession with flying started as a boy of 11 in 1920 when Edgar Percival landed his Avro 504 K biplane on a paddock on the edge of Lismore and he watched his parents embark on a joyflight. At 15, he started a course through the International Correspondence School on motor car engineering, then switched to aircraft engineering. When he was 18, he was talking of trying to build his own plane with a four-cylinder Henderson Motorcycle engine, when his father announced "Get up to Brisbane. Learn to Fly. And I'll buy you a plane". The next week he was taking lessons in a Cirrus Moth under the instruction of Captain Lester Brain at the Qantas Flying School at Eagle Farm. At 19 he had his licence – signed in Melbourne by Coleman, the Secretary for Air, in November 1928. Soon he had his "A" licence and the Gipsy Moth promised by his father was ready and waiting. Virtue's Air Travel Keith Virtue and his brother, Ralph Virtue, went into business as "Virtue's Air Travel", painting the caption in large black letters on the Gypsy Moth. They placed advertisements in Lismore and soon had passengers for joy flights, pupils for flying instruction and passengers for longer flights. New England Airways (1931–1936) Aged 19, Keith Virtue and his future father-in-law, G.A. Robinson, established New England Airways (later Airlines of Australia). In her biography of Keith Virtue, "Virtue in Flying", Joan Priest writes "New England Airways took over where Smithy and Ulm left off, renewing the Sydney–Brisbane link from 1930, and for a time in the Depression years providing the only airline service on Australia's east coast". New England Airways was incorporated on 1 January 1931, with G.A. Robinson managing director and Keith Virtue a Director and Chief Pilot. One of the