Giant Columbia model on display at mall

Press, 7 May 1984, Page 4

Giant Columbia model on display at mall

Paul Dewhurst’s mother says he has always been just “plane crazy.”

It was this love of aircraft that led to his interest in the American space programme and prompted him to build a quarter-size model of the Columbia space shuttle. The shuttle, weighing 2000 kg, is standing in the Northlands Shopping Mall this week. It is the third mall the shuttle has been to on its first visit to New Zealand.

r The trip by road from Wellington yesterday highlighted the problems of moving the large model about. Although it can be dismantled, it still needed the largest available container of the freighting company that transported it and the suspension of the truck had to be eased to let the load through the Kaikoura road tunnels.

Mr Dewhurst, the jovial Australian who spouts statistics about the space programme and especially

Columbia, almost non-stop, has been on the road with his model since the real Columbia touched down the second time in November, 1981.

In that time the shuttle model would have travelled 250,000 km around Australia and New Zealand and been viewed by two million people. Mr Dewhurst would love to take it to the United States but cost prohibits that.

The shuttle model comes complete with display boards, additional models and a video. Mr Dewhurst is anxious that children learn about the space programme.

A test tyre from Columbia — the real one — and one of the 31,500 heat-proof tiles are also on display. Mr Dewhurst spent two years thinking about the model and 18 weeks building it with the help of his wife, Fay, who sometimes travels with him. On this trip it is his mother, Kath, who is with him.

Mr Dewhurst says that only 65 per cent of the 50,000 people who work the space programme are American.

“The guy who programmes the shuttle is Australian. New Zealand is now involved with the cameras on Columbia. It is important that kids learn about the programme.” The shuttle will stay on the road until 1986, Mr Dewhurst says. The New Zealand timber and plywood model travels quite well and takes about five hours to rebuild. It is an accurate scale copy of the original. Mr Dewhurst visited the base where the real shuttles are built and talked to technicians and engineers, all with the blessing of the space officials at the National Aeronautical and Space Administration.

The shuttle is not the only model the Australian shipwright owns. He has made and displayed a variety of models in Australia.