CLAIM FOR FIRST FLIGHT

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32031, 4 July 1969, Page 1

CLAIM FOR FIRST FLIGHT

The history of avia* tion in New Zealand may have to be rewritten if the claims by two Southlanders to. have seen an aeroplane flying in 1910 are accepted.

The two men, both in their eighties, say they saw Herbert John Pither flying an aeroplane at Riverton beach, near Invercargill, in 1910. If their testimony is accepted by the New Zealand division of the Royal Aeronautical Society Pither will be held to have preceded Vivian Walsh, of Auckland, In making a controlled, sustained and deliberate flight in a heavier-than-air craft in

New Zealand. Walsh first flew an aircraft at Glenora Park, Papakura, on February 8, 1911, but Pither is reported to have flown on July 5, 1910. At its meeting in Wellington next Tuesday the Aeronautical Society will consider the claim for Pither advanced by Mr L. V. M. Long, of Christchurch, who has been doing research on the subject since 1947.

Recently the society asked anyone in Southland who saw Pither flying his aeroplane to come forward with details.

On June 12 the “Southland Times” reported that Mr Gordon Whiting, aged 81, of Liffey Street, Invercargill, had claimed to have seen the aeroplane from a railway locomotive near Waikiwi.

Mr Whiting’s description of the aeroplane was close to the

actual dimensions and construction of Pither’s aircraft. He could not give the exact date when he saw the aeroplane but thought it was in 1909 or 1910 On June 14 the “Southland Times” reported Mr M. Barr, aged 83, of Invercargill, as saying that he had seen an aeroplane over West Plains before his marriage in March, 191 L He had been cycling with his step-father when the aeroplane roared over their heads giving them such a fright that they almost fell from their cycles. On July 10, 1910, the “Southland Times” reported a conversation between Pither and a staff reporter relating to flights Pither had made a few days earlier. Subsequently, Pither took

his aeroplane to Dunedin and Christchurch for static displays and later to Melbourne where the machine was impounded by the Customs Department Pither was widely known in Australia and New Zealand as an outstanding professional cyclist. He was born in 1871 at Waddington and at one time ran a bicycle shop in Cathedral Square. He is known to have built a two-seater, single-engine car at a time when there were only six motor-vehicles in Christchurch. He died in Melbourne on April 30, 1934, not once having claimed to have been the first man to fly an aeroplane in New Zealand.

Besides Pither and Walsh, another man, Richard Pearse, is named a$ the first man to have flown in New Zealand. The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand says that Pearse made the first flight at Waitohi Fiets near Temuka, in March, 1904, three months after the Wright brothers. But the Aeronautical Society has rejected Pearse’s claim as doubtful. The remain of one of PithV

er’s two aero motors were exhibited at Wigram aerodrome in November, 1967. The secretary of the Aeronautical Society, Mr A. A. Hoffman, of Wellington, confirmed yesterday that the claim for Pither would be considered at a meeting next Tuesday. But a decision would not be made until the Royal Aeronautical Society in London had answered a question as ta-frhat constituted a sustained flight. Recognised criteria for a sustained powered flight are that a conventional aeroplane must fly at least a quarter of a mile, must sustain itself freely on a horizontal or upward path, without - loss of airspeed, beyond the point where it could be influenced by any momentum built up before it left the ground. Otherwise its performance could be rated only as a powered leap. Mr Hoffman said that the society was very interested in the information given by the two Southland men.

H. J. Pither is shown above in his aircraft at the Caledonian Ground, Dunedin, in 1910.