Mystery aeroplanes 1918 - Aus and NZ

[ErrolC]

Not sure if this batch ofAus/NZ mystery aeroplanes from 1918 have been mentioned here before (I'm sure that Wölfchen has been), nice interplay of technology, fear, and the media covered by Brett Holman at his Airminded blog.

airminded.org/2011/06/09/dreaming-war-seeing-aeroplanes-i/

Note that Brett has an article on the fear of the commercial bomber between the wars in the latest Flightpath.

[Dave Homewood]

Yes see here:

rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=403

[ErrolC]

Brett has started a NZ-specific series of blog posts on 1918 mystery aeroplanes (subsequent to him braving Wellington in winter for a conference and archive vists).

airminded.org/2013/08/28/the-mystery-aeroplane-scare-in-new-zealand-i/

Does anyone know where Ninety-mile beach south of Christchurch (referred to in a report) is?

[ngatimozart]

I haven't heard of one in the South Island. Wouldn't be a beach down here long enough.

Addition. I just searched the LINZ NZ Gazetteer for geographic names and only one Ninety Mile Beach came up. The one in the far north.

[shorty]

The report camr from someone calling himself "Leestonian" so presumably he lived in or about Leeston, couple that with the travel restrictions that people had in those days it would seem that he would have observed from the Leeston area which would perhaps point to the "ninety mile" beach being somewhere in the region between the Rakaia and Ashburton Rivers. That area is also south west of Christchurch

[lumpy]

'For several evenings, about 7.30 o'clock, a bright light has come from the east, starting near Sumner, and going rapidly west [...] On Friday night [8 March 1918] it appeared between 7.15 and 7.30, passed over the southern part of the city at a great height, and gradually disappeared in banks of western cloud'.( quote from the report )

I have a question or two . What would you use ( in 1918 ) to " light " an aeroplane up at night ? Most had no electrical system at all , and surely they wouldnt risk carrying anything with a flame ? Secondly , why would you light it ? They must have known about " night vision " , so a darkened aircraft would likely provide better pilot visibility on a moonlit night ( its not like there would have been other air traffic ) . As for " disappeared in banks of western cloud " , that would have been interesting , visual flying , at night , in cloud ?

[ErrolC]

Thanks for reminding me to look further, throwing Leeston and Ninety Mile Beach into Google suggests it was the stretch from Lake Ellsmere to Timaru.
www.teara.govt.nz/en/canterbury-region/page-1

Plains of vast extent

In 1844, from a hilltop on Banks Peninsula, Bishop G. A. Selwyn ‘obtained a magnificent view over the vast plains of the South. Below us stretched the apparently interminable line of the ‘Ninety mile beach’, a continuous range of uniform shingle without headland or bay. Within this shingle bank is a great lake, Waihora [Ellesmere]… Beyond the lake are plains of vast extent, bounded by a range of snowy mountains behind which the sun was setting.’ ¹
Quoted in G. W. Graham and L. J. B. Chapple, Ellesmere county: the land, the lake and the people, 1864–1964

Papers Past : Press, 16 June 1900

Since the account of the proposed gold dredging work on the Ninety Mile Beach at Tamutu, Leeston, appeared in the columns of The Press...

Encyclopedia Britannica 1911

TIMARU, a seaport of Geraldine county, New Zealand, on the E. coast of South Island, ioo m. S.W. of Christchurch by rail. Pop. (1906), 7615. The slight inward sweep of the coast forms the Canterbury Bight, and the shore-line northward from Timaru is called the Ninety-mile Beach.

[Dave Homewood]

Aug 30, 2013 20:43:43 GMT 12 lumpy said:

'For several evenings, about 7.30 o'clock, a bright light has come from the east, starting near Sumner, and going rapidly west [...] On Friday night [8 March 1918] it appeared between 7.15 and 7.30, passed over the southern part of the city at a great height, and gradually disappeared in banks of western cloud'.( quote from the report )

I have a question or two . What would you use ( in 1918 ) to " light " an aeroplane up at night ? Most had no electrical system at all , and surely they wouldnt risk carrying anything with a flame ? Secondly , why would you light it ? They must have known about " night vision " , so a darkened aircraft would likely provide better pilot visibility on a moonlit night ( its not like there would have been other air traffic ) . As for " disappeared in banks of western cloud " , that would have been interesting , visual flying , at night , in cloud ?

Perhaps an electric lamp run from a dynamo that linked to the motor?

I have been wondering for a while and meant to ask here, who was the first kiwi to officially perform a night flight in NZ? Would it have been that early?

Could this sighting have been lights from ships reflecting off cloud? Like the squid boat lights that some people claim were UFO's?