Just seen on TV3 News. A replica of the Pither Flyer, which has been built at Mandeville by Colin Smith and his team at the Croydon Aircraft Company, took to the air today. It flew a straight line along the airfield at just a few feet off the ground before landing again.
They say that this proves that Herbert John Pither’s claim that he was the first person in New Zealand to achieve controlled flight in 1910 on a Southland beach was correct. Officially it is recognised that the first controlled flight took part in Auckland after Pither’s claim, because there was no photo taken or documentation (much like Richard Pearse’s March 1903 flight I guess)
The Pither Flyer looks much like a Bleriot XI in layout, but the pilot was not game to take it higher than a few feet because he said they had to rely on ground effect to keep it airborne. (doesn’t sound like controlled flight to me, more like hovercraft 🙂 )
The really interesting thing is they said the plane will now go into a transport museum that is being established at mandeville. Does anyone know more about this new museum???
By: Errol Martyn - 19th February 2005 at 11:01
For more information on the Pither replica and the Mandeville-based enterprises of Croydon Aircraft Company, Croydon Aviation Heritage Trust and Croydon Air Services go to:-
www.croydonaircraft.com
Errol
By: Errol Martyn - 19th February 2005 at 07:10
They say that this proves that Herbert John Pither’s claim that he was the first person in New Zealand to achieve controlled flight in 1910 on a Southland beach was correct. Officially it is recognised that the first controlled flight took part in Auckland after Pither’s claim, because there was no photo taken or documentation (much like Richard Pearse’s March 1903 flight I guess)
I don’t know who ‘they’ are but the flight today of an approximate replica does not ‘prove’ Pither’s claim at all. At best it merely indicates that it is possible that his aeroplane of 1910 did fly/get off the ground.
Richard Pearse of course could never have flown in 1903 as, by his own admission on at least three separate occasions, he had not at that point even commenced construction of his machine.
the plane was constructed exactly from his original drawings
This will be news to Colin Smith and his team! In fact no such drawings are known to have survived.
Errol
Errol
By: Dave Homewood - 19th February 2005 at 05:39
This comes from The History of New Zealand Aviation by Ross Ewing and Ross Macpherson:
“While Ogilvie was trying to launch himself into the air at Napier, another engineer was also working at the problem in Invercargill. Herbert John Pither had begun to put together a metal-framed aircraft, one of the earliest of its type worldwide, in late 1909. Nearly 8 meters long, with a span of 6 metres, the aircraft was constucted from steel tubing. As with many New Zealand pioneers, he also built an engine: a four cylinder, 40-horsepower model weighing some 72.5 kilograms.
Herbert Pither claimed to have flown his monoplane in a straight line for nearly 1.5 kilometres along Riverton Beach at an altitude of around 30 feet. Finding himself hemmed in by the sea to the left and sandhills to the right, a landing was forced, he later told a newspaper reporter. The date was Tuesday 5 July 1910.
More research needs to be done before the honour of being among the first to make a powered flight in New Zealand can be attributed to the Invercargill motor engineer. George Bolt, a well-known aircraft engineer, offered the opinion that Pither’s engine was only capable of running for up to two minutes before cooling problems reduced power. Pither’s 5 July flight was made without the benefit of known witnesses and, though he may have made subsequent experiments in the Waikiwi-West Plains area on the outskirts of the city before removing his aircraft to Dunedin, no conclusive evidence has been publicly offered to substantiate any claim as to sustained and fully controlled flight. The desire for secrecy by early experimenters certainly had its disadvantages.
Pither’s aircraft was sent to Dunedin by rail with the intention of flying from the Caledonian Ground in September 1910, but engine problems prevented any demonstration of flight. While being transported to Christchurch, the aircraft suffered damage, and loacl citizens had to be content with watching Pither taxi the aircraft inside the city’s King Edward Barracks.
New Zealand’s first publicly exhibited aeroplane was then shipped, together with its constructor, across the Tasman to Melbourne in November 1910. It appears unlikely that the aircraft ever flew in Australia, however, Herbert Pither remaining there until his death in April 1934. “
I guess at last that extra research has been done – the plane was constructed exactly from his original drawings, and it flies. Cool.
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February 19, 2005 at 5:21 am