|
Post by planeimages on Mar 5, 2009 10:49:48 GMT 12
Does anyone know where I could obtain the following books on Richard Pearse please?
Oh, For the Wings of a Moth" by Helen Moore & Geoffrey Rodliffe [1999, ISBN 0-473-05772-7].
"Flight Over Waitohi" by Geoffrey Rodliffe - private printing [1997, ISBN 0-473-05048-X].
"Wings Over Waitohi" by Geoffrey Rodliffe - Avon Press, Windsor House, Auckland, New Zealand. Fax: +64 9 303 2811. [1993, ISBN 0-473-02094-7]
"Richard Pearse - Aviator" by Geoffrey Rodliffe - out of print.
"The Riddle of Richard Pearse" by Gordon Ogilvie. [1st/2nd editions: 1973/1974, ISBN 0-589-00794-7, Library of Congress card no. 73-78686] [3rd revised edition (minor alterations only): 1994, ISBN 0-7900-0329-5]
"The Hall of Fame - Honouring the Pioneers of New Zealand Aviation" booklet by The Museum of Transport and Technology (M.O.T.A.T.), Western Springs Road, Avondale, Auckland, New Zealand. I can obtain this from MOTAT
It's time Pearce's efforts were more widely recognised.
Any information on JJ Hammond and his flights in the Bristol "Boxkite" circa 1911 in NZ would also be appreciated.
If there are any other very early NZ aviators I would dearly love to know about them, too. Nothing later than, say, 1914. I don't need any detail about military aviation at this point.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 5, 2009 12:06:58 GMT 12
Peter, try our good friend at the MOTAT Library, she should be able to sort you out a lot of information, they hold a collection of Pearse artifacfts including his home made motorbike, the remains of two of his aircraft, etc. plus lots more on early NZ aviation. A book on early NZ pioneers I would recommand is Venture The Far Horizons by E.F. Harvie. It is very good and includes Will Scotaln's early pioneering flights. Wigram may be able to help more with info on Joe Hammond. AVM Sir Richard Bolt is the son of George Bolt, and he lives in the Wellington area (look him up on whitepages.co.nz - he may be able to help more on George's involvement in early aviation as he was heavily involved. George Bolt was also involved in making the story of Richard Pearse well known. Pearse is well remembered in this country but not really recognised much outside of NZ. Billy Connolly was fully convinced by the eveidence he saw at MOTAT that Pearse beat the Wrights. That's convincing enough for me as he is a university accredited doctor and everything. One other suggestion is do some searches on Papers Past for Hammond, Scotland etc. This is an archive of many NZ newspapers up till 1920: paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast
|
|
|
Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 5, 2009 12:14:26 GMT 12
I've got every one of those books in one of my bookcases, including both the 1st and 3rd editions of "The Riddle of Richard Pearse". There's an interesting article on Monash University's website about Richard Pearse, with links to plenty more webpages including one with excerts from statements made by various people who either witnessed first-hand his early attempts at flight, or who knew about it. www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/pearse1.html
|
|
|
Post by shamus on Mar 5, 2009 12:54:23 GMT 12
The book by Rodliffe, 'Flight over Waitohe' is available now on Trademe for $5, also, Venture the far horizon, $12 and $14. Go to Trademe, Books, non-fiction, transport, aviation. Good luck. Also, I thought Hammond was famous for his flights in the Bleriot X1 not a boxkite. Referring to NZ of course.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 5, 2009 12:59:06 GMT 12
Hammond was sent to the UK to learn to fly as the first Government sponsored pilot. His first flights here were on his return in 1913 in the Bleiot I believe.
|
|
kiwikid
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 86
|
Post by kiwikid on Mar 5, 2009 15:33:16 GMT 12
Peter, this vid might amuse you. Amazing what the application of 100 years of technology can do Kiwikid
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 5, 2009 15:48:11 GMT 12
You might want to contact the Croydon Aircraft Company at Mandeville (or Ryan - DragonflyDH90 on the forum) about the Pither aircrfat too, another pioneering achievement.
|
|
|
Post by planeimages on Mar 5, 2009 18:06:47 GMT 12
Thank you everyone.
The video is a screamer. Give me enough horsepower and I will make a barn door fly!
Pearse would have been stunned.
To the best of my knowledge and considerable research JJ Hammond came out to Australia to fly for the Bristol Air Mission with two Boxkites 10 and 11. He flew in Perth and Melbourne and then in Sydney. At some stage he went to NZ with his wife and by one means or another flew one of the Boxkites there.
He may well have flown a Bleriot XI also.
The following is an extract from a story I wrote for Aero Australia:
“26 year-old Parramatta dentist William Ewart Hart. In late September 1911, Bill Hart purchased one of a pair of Bristol Biplanes (Nos.10 and 11) - improved copies of Anglo-Frenchman Henri Farman’s Type III Standard Boxkite- for £1,333 from the Bristol Australian Air Mission. This was led by Sydney Smith, nephew of Baronet Sir George White - founder of the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company Limited of Filton. The pilots were Joseph Joel Hammond (the first Kiwi to be granted a Royal Aero Club licence) and 21-year-old Bristolian Leslie MacDonald and they were assisted by a rigger, Mr.Coles. The machine used was No.10.
The charter for the Air Mission was to sell the biplanes to the Australian Government for military use. The Government declined the offer so the airframes, along with a pair of the Seguin brothers’ Sociétié des Moteurs Gnome Omega 50 horsepower (37 kW)/50kg 7-cylinder rotary engines, was offered for private sale. Bill Hart agreed to purchase No.11, still in its shipping crate, with assorted spares but hotly refused to sign a guarantee not to build aeroplanes in Australia or conduct flying training. Piqued, the parent company then cabled their refusal to allow MacDonald to provide flight tuition to the feisty Hart.
Notwithstanding this hurdle Hart said that MacDonald sportingly took him for several flights between September 25 and 29 and supervised Hart’s taxiing tests. Hart maintained (in 1933) that he was only given ground instruction, which is understandable, given that the aircraft did not have dual controls. One Walter Lee in the United States has since reported that it was possible to lean forward and place his hand on top of the pilot’s right hand on the “stick” on similar machines.
Before he could take to the air solo Hart was forced to rebuild the “Boxkite” when it was damaged by a wind storm on October 3, 1911 while inside its makeshift tent on Australia’s first declared airfield at Belmore Park (later a Speedway and now Army property). This area, adjacent to Penrith railway station, was leased to Hart and the Australian Aerial League either jointly or independently, by the Hon. Sidney Smith, MLA, Minister for Mines (no relation to Sydney Smith above). Hart’s father, William Henry, a partner in a successful Parramatta timber business, along with friends, assisted Bill to re-manufacture the shattered wooden-framed machine with larger, sturdier sailcloth-covered wings and higher-quality Australian-grown wood. There may be an element of self-promotion in Hart’s claim. Either that or a thinly-disguised tax dodge when it is recalled that he was given a large container of spares which constituted a complete second airframe.
One of Hart’s Bristols was apparently sent to New Zealand with Hammond in a scam to reduce or eliminate import tax on the £1,300 purchase price. The whole affair is clouded in mystery, half-truths and Hart-inspired blather. He was very good at that.
Sadly, both MacDonald and Hammond were killed; the former when he crashed into the Thames while testing an experimental biplane version of the Vickers No. 6 on January 13, 1913 and the latter on a US war-loan drive flight on September 22, 1918 at Indianapolis.
If you can locate any information that Hammond flew a Bleriot that would be very much appreciated.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 5, 2009 19:05:56 GMT 12
Hammond most certainly flew a Bleriot XI here, and not just any olf Brleiot but in fact "Britannia", New Zealand's first ever military aircraft. He flew it on a few occasions and then got in big trouble for taking a touring enterainer (female) for a ride rather than some stuffy pompous dignatory for the first passenger flight. He was grounded, and the aircraft packed up and stored till the War and it then went with the First Echelon if the NZEF to the war.
I hadn't heard of his previous flying of a Boxkite in NZ and I've always been under the impression he'd only just arrived back from the UK after his flying training when his Bleriot flying took place. I'd like to know more. Do you know when his licence was issued?
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 5, 2009 19:17:16 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 5, 2009 19:27:04 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by planeimages on Mar 5, 2009 21:37:00 GMT 12
Many thanks again.
OK. I was misled. Hammond clearly went to NZ with his wife during the time he was in Australia flying the Bristol Boxkite. I recall that he was in strife over taking his wife for a flight instead of the dignitary.
Joseph Hammond received RAC licence certificate No. 32 when he attended the Bristol's Larkhill circa late 1910. He was that school's first graduate. Leslie MacDonald, Hammond's cohort in the Australian Bristol Air Mission in 1910/11, graduated from Bristol's parallel Brooklands establishment with RAC 28 on November 12. This information from Barnes, C.H. Bristol Aircraft Since 1910, Putnam, London , 1964, p.15
I think the Hart Boxkite to NZ was a fabrication.
It wouldn't be the only time people have shipped machines (like racing cars) to NZ so that they could be "re-imported" at a more favourable duty rate.
The archives for the newspapers were excellent.Many thanks again.
OK. I was misled. Hammond clearly went to NZ with his wife during the time he was in Australia fly9ing the Bristol Boxkite. I recall that he was in strife over taking his wife for a flight instead of the dignitary.
I think the Hart Boxkite to NZ was a fabrication.
It wouldn't be the only time people have shipped machines (like racing cars) to NZ so that they could be "re-imported" at a more favourable duty rate.
The archives for the newspapers were excellent.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 5, 2009 22:01:23 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by Bruce on Mar 5, 2009 22:38:28 GMT 12
According to the RNZAF museum web site, the unauthorised passenger was: Miss Esme McLennan of the Royal Pantomime Company It doesnt sound like she was his wife, I'd suggest he was going to be in trouble on the home front too....
|
|
|
Post by planeimages on Mar 5, 2009 23:13:17 GMT 12
1911 January 3 - Hammond test flies one of the Bristol Boxkites in Western Australia [Carroll p.23] January 9 - Hammond gives a public demonstration - 12 mins January 12 - Hammond gives another public demonstration - 11 mins then plane dismantled and sent to Melbourne February 18 - Hammond flies at Altona Bay in Victoria - 31 mins February 20 - Hammond flies from Altona Bay to Geelong in Victoria 68 kms in 55 mins February 21 - Hammond flies back from Geelong to Altona Bay in 66 mins February 22 - Hammond flies at Altona Bay in Victoria 44 kms in 33 mins February 23 - Hammond takes his wife aloft to become the first woman to fly in Australia April/May - Hammond flies in Sydney www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/timeline5.htmlFebruary 23 - Hammond takes his wife aloft to become the first woman to fly in Australia. This was in the Bristol on February 23 1911 at Altona. So what was he doing taking showgirls for flights in NZ? And in a single-seat Bleriot? Esme may have been his wife under a stage name. Perhaps this is where I got the idea that he must have had one of Hart's Boxkites there.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 6, 2009 0:04:41 GMT 12
The Bleriot was a two-seater, it was sent here as a trainer. You'll read in one of those Papers Past reports that the Govt intended in 1914 to set up a flying school in Christchurch. As a result of Hammond's stupidity, that never happened and Henry Wigram eventaully had to set one up himself privately. The NZ Air Force movement should have begun in 1914 but for that silly girl in the back seat.
The Bleriot was sent overseas in August 1914 to train flyers there. It could have been taining them here but didn't.
I seem to have recalled reading in an older account that Hammond had attended the touring show, met some of the girls and invited them along. He asked the leading lady to come up with him. I've seen a photo somewhere, she was quite a looker. This put noses right out of joint with the politicians who were all hoping to get the first passenger ride. It set back military avaition for about 10 years in NZ.
I have never heard of a box kite in NZ.
|
|
|
Post by planeimages on Mar 6, 2009 7:08:10 GMT 12
That settles it then. I have bid on several of the books and will digest them on receipt.
The "Bleriot" which Arthur Burr (Wizard) Stone flew here and later in NZ was an American-built copy:
This is what I wrote in Aero:
"On June 29, 1912, Hart went on to soundly defeat the potentially-faster New York Queens aircraft company Blériot-type/Metz aircraft of brash American daredevil, Arthur Burr “Wizard” Stone (sometimes called “Eugene”), in Australia’s first air race from Surrey Park (Now Ellis Avenue off Gardner’s Road in the industrial suburb of Rosebery) to Parramatta. Stone lost his bearings and landed at Wylie’s Lane (Lakemba), out of fuel, well off course and furious that his plan to follow Hart misfired. Hart collected a handy £250 wager for his efforts."
Stone was reputed to have said that he was confident of beating Hart but one thing worried him and that was "Where is Parramatta?" He planned to follow Hart but lost him in the clouds and rain. A novelised, published account of Hart's life suggested that people lit a smokey fire at Parramatta Park to guide the local hero.
What, Australians do such a thing? Never.
Hammond's gesture certainly had repercussions. The usual case of "when the dick gets hard the brain becomes soft", perhaps? So where was his wife, given that history records her flight with him in Australia.
|
|
|
Post by shamus on Mar 6, 2009 12:04:40 GMT 12
A photo of J Hammond by the Bleriot 'Britannia' in NZ.
|
|
|
Post by planeimages on Mar 6, 2009 15:16:16 GMT 12
Oh, well done Sir!
Any chance of a hi-res file please?
I don't imagine there is any copyright on it?
The engine looks like a Gomne rotary or similar.
|
|
|
Post by planeimages on Mar 6, 2009 15:57:04 GMT 12
It looks like Hammond just went to NZ in mid 1911 without doing any flying. The Bleriot flights were in January 1914 according to the NZ newspaper clippings.
The Pearse interviews are quite amazing but rather conflicting. I can see why there is controversy. One account says he just drove off a cliff and glided with "power" assistance for 1/2 mile and landed in the river.
The sisters seem pretty convinced that Richard flew from the ground but their memory of the date is unclear.
The books which I have ordered or am bidding on should sort out the tale but might also muddy the waters even more.
The film is entertaining but it uses a combination of ideas and stories. Now, what we need is a modern version in the style of "The World's Fastest Indian". This is a ripper tale.
|
|