History takes wings as rarely seen photographs get a new lease on life First appearances can be deceptive. It looks as though this parachutist may have misjudged his drop and ended up draped down the side of a chicken coop. The reality is Harry Thomas, who gained parachute-jumping experience in Britain, was atop that stack of bricks in 1930 demonstrating his skills throughout Australia. Those romantic early days of aviation, with leather-helmeted pilots emerging from the open cockpit of their biplanes, are recorded among 2000 images that have just been digitised from the Fairfax archives of plate glass negatives and made available online. From the same year is an image of pioneer aviatrix Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia, in her Gipsy Moth aircraft Jason. Such was the interest that one report said arrangements were made for the aircraft to be displayed on the fourth floor of David Jones. Caught up: Harry Thomas demonstrates his parachuting skills to an admirer. Photo: Fairfax Archives Less is known about Miss F. Deaton climbing into a twin-seater with a badge for the Aero Club of NSW on the fuselage. The images are among several categories put online, including the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, steamboats from the 1930s, floods in Maitland and golf, tennis and cricket photographs. Fairfax has been working with the National Library of Australia and the National Cultural Heritage Foundation to make the photos available to the public. Taking flight: Pioneering avaitrix Amy Johnson and her aircraft. Bernie Callan, director of Fairfax Syndication, said: "To date we have received over 4000 digitised images from NLA and we have captioned over 2000." Emily Sykes, project manager at the NLA, said the delicate glass plates were brushed on the photographic emulsion side and cleaned on the reverse with ethanol and water before digitisation on a flatbed scanner.