Urgent - de Havilland Rongotai info sought

[Dave Homewood]

Hi everyone,

Can anyone please help me with information on the de Havilland Aircraft Factory of New Zealand Ltd.?

I need to know this urgently for a written piece with a deadline:

- Does anyone know what date the de Havilland Aircraft Company of New Zealand Ltd was established at Rongotai? I have established that the NZ Government ordered 100 Tiger Moths form them in August 1939, but was the factory actually built and running at that time or was it built on that order?

- When did the factory close? I know it was still operating into the mid-1950's, I know it was gone by 1959 when the airport reopened. Does anyone have a specific date? And did the factory move elsewhere?

- Was the de Havilland Aircraft Company of New Zealand Ltd connected in any way with F. Douglas Mill of Hobsonville who had previously been the NZ agent for importing DH products? If not, when did it change hands as such?

- Was the de Havilland Aircraft Company of New Zealand Ltd established elsewhere, ie in a city office or something, before that order for 100 aircraft was placed? Or did DH in Britain actually take the order through their NZ agent and established de Havilland Aircraft Company of New Zealand Ltd as a result?

Help please?

[Dave Homewood]

Also, does anyone know how many ofnthe workers had to be brought in from overseas? I'm sure very few people in NZ had built aeroplanes on the production line before this factory was established.

[hairy]

From 'The History of New Zealand Aviation' by Ross Ewing and Ross MacPhearson, page 120......................

"To enable the foreseeable demand for training aircraft to be met (New Zealand was to supply trained aircrew to the RAF as well as its own units), an agreement was made with the De Havilland Aircraft Company of England to provide a factory for the production of Tiger Moths. In March 1939 the De Havilland (NZ) Company Ltd came into existence, and a start was made on New Zealand's first aircraft factory at Rongotai."

The first DHNZ built aircraft (albeit with a Hatfield built fuselage) with the construction number DHNZ 1 was bought on-charge by the RNZAF as NZ751 on the 29th of July 1940.

Hope this helps.................

As an aside, this is from the 8th April 1938 issue of Wings magazine.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Marcus, that is great info. The scan tells me Mill's firm was still the agent a year before, so that helps too.

[Peter Lewis]

DHNZ were still at Rongotai after the airport reopened in 1959.
They handled the overseas sale of the RNZAF Otter NZ6081 in 1963.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Peter, I didn't know that. When did they turn their building into the terminal then?

[Damon]

Dave ,the book New Zealand Tiger Mths 1938 to 200 by Cliff jenks and david Phillips has quite alot of info on de Havilland @ Rongotai.Does your local library have a copy?
Damon

[Dave Homewood]

No it doesn't. Can anyone who has it please pull out the main facts for the remaining questions please? I'd like to get that book someday, I saw a copy some years back.

[flyjoe180]

Dave, does this help?

12. Validation of lease of portion of Rongotai Aerodrome to the De
Havilland Aircraft Co. of New Zealand, Ltd., and authorization of new
lease---(1) The lease dated the twenty-seventh day of November, nineteen
hundred and thirty-nine, registered under number 22181 in the Land
Transfer Office at Wellington from the Mayor, Councillors, and Citizens
of the City of Wellington to the De Havilland Aircraft Company of New
Zealand, Limited, of the land described in subsection three of this
section, a copy of which lease is deposited in the office of the
Minister of Internal Affairs at Wellington, under No. I.A. 105/80, is
hereby validated.

(2) The Wellington City Council is hereby authorized to lease to the
De Havilland Aircraft Company of New Zealand, Limited, the land
described in subsection four of this section for a term of twenty years,
with a right of renewal for one period of twenty-one years, at a rental
of seventy-four pounds per annum for the first term of twenty years, but
otherwise on the same terms and conditions as the lease mentioned in
subsection one hereof.

(3) The land referred to in subsection one hereof is more particularly
described as follows:---

All that piece of land situate in the City of Wellington, containing
two roods twelve perches and fifty-six one-hundredths of a perch, be the
same a little more or less, being part of Lot 1 on Deposited Plan Number
2481, being part Section 13, Watts Peninsula District, being also part
of the land comprised in certificate of title, Volume 428, folio 268, as
the said piece of land is delineated on the plan deposited in the office
of the Chief Surveyor at Wellington (S.O. 20339), and being thereon
coloured red.

(4) The land referred to in subsection two hereof is more particularly
described as follows:---

All that piece of land situate in the City of Wellington, containing
one rood fourteen perches and thirty-six one-hundredths of a perch, be
the same a little more or less, being part of Lot 1 on Deposited Plan
Number 2481, being parts Sections 13 and 14, Watts Peninsula District,
being also part of the land comprised in certificate of title, Volume
428, folio 268, as the said piece of land is delineated on a plan
deposited in the office of the Chief Surveyor at Wellington (S.O.No.
20339), and being thereon coloured neutral.

legislation.knowledge-basket.co.nz/gpacts/public/text/1940/se/016se12.html

[flyjoe180]

Leased from 27th November 1939 by looks of that legal document. I shall keep scouring the net...

[flyjoe180]

List of NZ Built Tiger Moths on the de Havilland aircraft production page:

www.dehavilland.ukf.net/pNZ0.htm

[flyjoe180]

You could try Flight Global Dave, some archival stuff there but I'm afraid I don't have the time right now to search it for you.

www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1957/1957%20-%201196.html

(That is an example of what can be found)

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Joe, this has helped.

[Dave Homewood]

Sept 7, 2011 19:48:51 GMT 12 Peter Lewis said:

DHNZ were still at Rongotai after the airport reopened in 1959.
They handled the overseas sale of the RNZAF Otter NZ6081 in 1963.

Hi Peter, is this the actual factory/workshops that you refer to or did they perhaps simply move into a smaller premises on the new airport as a headquarters? Because looking at the National Archives 'Archway' hits there seems to be a few files about the redevelopment of the airport that refer to de Havilland compensation claims, as if they lost their site.

[Peter Lewis]

They relocated from what became the terminal to the western side of the airfield. The hangar is the big one now occupied by the Aero Club, off Cochrane Street.
They did lots of Beaver assembly work there in the 1960s.

[Dave Homewood]

Oh ok, thanks. So any idea when the de Havilland company finally left Rongotai? i have read they relocated to Palmerston North, is there any truth in that?

[flyjoe180]

Glad I could be of help Dave.

[Peter Lewis]

Whites Air Directory for 1964 contains an ad (page 7) for Hawker Siddeley International NZ Ltd. which states "After nearly 25 years of continued expansion in New Zealand, the de Havilland Aircraft Co. of NZ Ltd. merges with famous names in British Aviation and is now part of the Hawker Siddeley Group. The Group is represented in New Zealand by Hawker Siddeley International NZ Ltd. ". It gives a Tirangi Road, Wellington Airport address.

The 1968 directory still lists HSI as at Wellington Airport, able to carry out "Complete overhauls, repairs, modifications, maintenance, checks, for all types of aircraft up to DC-3 size".

There is no mention of them in the 1980 Directory.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks. I wonder if this is the same company that is now Hawker Pacific at Ardmore?

[thomarse]

DHNZ relocated to a large brand-new building next to the Aero Club when the airport was re-developed. The building still exists and is occupied by Vincent Aviation, Aviation Radio and others, although I think the hangar on the end is a subsequent addition to the original building.