OUR AIR RECORD

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 103, 25 January 1930, Page 9

OUR AIR RECORD

NEW ZEALAND IN PEACE AND WAR

LITTLE NEED TO BE ASHAMED

(By

“Propellor.”)

Even if New Zealand has not, like Australia, produced aviators of the Ross Smith, Kingsford Smith and Hinkler type, who have written their names across the face of the earth, her past has not been inglorious, and her future is full of promise. Twenty years ago Mr. A. W. Shaef set to work upon his first aeroplane, which flew in January, 1911, and he afterwards built the first seaplane in Australia and New Zealand, and the first amphibian (land or seaplane) in the world. New Zealand aviation had been born. He was followed by the Walsh brothers, who established their flying school at Kohimarama, and Scotland, who crashed in the trees of Newtown Park in. 1913.

Then war came, and man, having fought on land, and on sea, fought in the air. New Zealand contributed her quota to the ranks of the “Riders of the Flaming Coffin.”, The squadrons of most of the great British aces. Bishop, Ball, McCudden, and Mannock included a New Zealander; Bishop, yho accounted for 72 ’planes himself, having three. New Zealand has not won a Victoria Cross in the air, though Australia' only gained one (Lieutenant-, now Squadron-Leader. F. H. McNamara). One New Zealander, an old boy of Wellington College, Squadron Leader A. Conningham, D. 5.0.. M.C., D.F.C.. A.F.C., shot down thirty aeroplanes. including that of the famous German ace. Wolfe, and won every British decoration for which he was eligible short of the' Victoria Cross. He also led the flight of four Fairey 111 D machines which flew from Cairo to the Cape and back, and thence to England in 1926.

Shot Down Zeppelin. Then there was A. de B. Brandon, D. 5.0., M.C., who shot down the Zeppelin L-15 over the Thames Estuary on the night of April 30, 1916. The story of that achievement might well be referred to here. At 9.45 p.m. he sighted the airship at about 3000 feet above him, and climbing to a height of 9000 feet, dropped bombs upon it. At 10 o’clock he found it again, and dropped more “eggs,” two of which took effect. The raider was also greeted by unusually accurate anti-aircraft fire. Brandon, had only won his “wings” three weeks previously, while the captain of the Zeppelin (Lieutenant-Com-mander Breithaupt) held the Order Pour le Merite (Germany’s highest decoration) and the first-class Iron Cross. He was wearing the latter when he was shot down. Lieutenant Brandon’s effort was accomplished four months before the late Captain W. Leefe Robinson shot one down with his machine guns, for which he received the Victoria Cross, as the first airman to shoot one of the German airships down over England. Like Conningham, Brandon is an old boy of Wellington College. 111-fated Tasman Flight.

In January, 1928, Captain Hood and Lieutenant Moncrieff set out from Australia in an attempt to cross the Tasman Sea for the first time. Some months afterwards, Kingsford Smith, Dim, Litchfield and McWilliams (a New Zealander) performed a two-way crossing. Then came Mr. H. F. Mase’s attempt to fly home from England, and now Mr. Chichester is nearing Australia, and Flying Officers C. E. Kay and H. L. Piper intend setting out from England' for Australia shortly. . Though aviation in New Zealand has been somewhat backward, several experimental aerial mails have been run, and it should not be long before commercial aviation is on a sound basis within the Dominion.

The seed of civil aviation has also fallen on fertile ground in New Zealand. We have clubs here. Taking the figures given in the 1930 Royal Air Force Dairy concerning the number of aero clubs in the other parts of the Empire, it is found that the British Isles have 22 flying clubs, Canada 16, New Zealand 11, Australia 10, South Africa 8, India 4. In other words. New Zealand has more aero clubs to population than any other part of the Empire. If our legislators would only give the Air Force sufficient money for its needs, nobody could point the finger of scorn at the Dominion’s aviation.

B hen, two years hence. New Zealand aviation becomes of age, it will already have had a notable career.