Home-Made Plane Flew Near Napier In 1908

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28685, 8 September 1958, Page 14

Home-Made Plane Flew Near Napier In 1908

“The Press’* Special Service

NAPIER, September 7. Fifty years ago this month an aeroplane which performed surprisingly well was built at Marewa by Napier men. The struts were made of broomsticks and the

wings were covered with tightlysewn bed-sheeting. From the time the Wright brothers flew their machine at Kittyhawk all aircraft had been controlled by warping the whole wing area. The Napier machine was the first to use ailerons, a dramatic advance.

Late in 1907, Mr Bertram Ogilvie, working for Hawkins and Rome as a motor mechanic, studied photographs of the Wright biplane and decided ailerons could be substituted for the warp system of control. He built a model. Captain Bertram Hawkins, late of the 11th Hussars, took an interest and arranged finance. Work was started on a fullsized biplane, with Mr Lerew, Mr J. Munro, and MAsrs Goodger senior and junior among the enthusiastic helpers. White pine spars with single ribs were used, broomsticks served as struts, and gradually the machine took, shape. It had a span of 30 feet, with a chord of seven feet. Yacht rigging screws were used as turn-buckles, and strongly-sewn sheeting covered the wings. Piano hinggs were used for the ailerons.

However, the 10 horse-power twq-cylinder engine with battery ignition proved inadequate. A more powerful engine was

procured and the aircraft lumbered into the air to be the first aileron-controlled aircraft in the world to be flown.

One Sunday afternoon at Richmond Block, Lord Kitchener spent an hour watching a demonstration. Impressed, Lord Kitchener warmly congratulated Ogilvie. Captain Hawkins and Bertram Ogilvie went to England and had a triplane built by the young firm of Handley Page. It was driven by. a “powerful” 50 horse-power engine and performed well. At Brooklands the New Zealanders’ machine was flown by A. V. Roe, Henri Farman, Graham White and Colonel Cody. As late as 1936 Mr Ogilvie, then an old man, was closely interested in the affairs of the Napier Aero Club. He then was experiment ing with a model of a “direct lift aeroplane,” his keen vision already anticipating the helicopter.