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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 7, 2006 15:34:02 GMT 12
Pure and simple, your opinion, Yes or No, do you think that Richard Pearse beat the Wright brothers into the air and achieved proper flight?
Feel free to express opinions and debate the issue if you want to. This could be interesting...
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Post by Bruce on Mar 7, 2006 15:44:06 GMT 12
First aircraft builder in NZ yes, flyer no.
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Post by corsair67 on Mar 7, 2006 18:28:48 GMT 12
I agree with Bruce: first Kiwi aircraft builder - yes, world's first heavier-than-air sustained flight aviator - no. I think if he'd had more time and money he could well have made a proper flight. I mean look at what the guy managed to come up with from the materials he had to work with. Who cares that he didn't fly: he had a go (even though people thought he was a fool/madman!) and proved that good old Kiwi injanew, engunew, ingenuity can conquer just about anything - even gravity.  But the best thing about Richard Pearse is that he was a Cantabrian! |
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Post by hairy on Mar 7, 2006 20:54:17 GMT 12
By his own standards he was not the first, but then again the Wright brothers weren't first either using Richard Pearces criteria. But the best thing about Richard Pearse is that he was a Cantabrian! ;D .........his farm is right on the cusp, it is currently owned by a good friend of mine ,I'll be there in a couple of weeks on my annual South Island pilgramage. YAY.  |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 7, 2006 20:58:24 GMT 12
Marcus. can you get some photos for the forum please of the farm, and the road he took off from, when you're there if possible? It'd be interesting to see what it looks like.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 7, 2006 20:59:47 GMT 12
Perhaps he flew in Canterbury airspace but crashed on crossing into Otago? ;D ;D
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Post by hairy on Mar 7, 2006 21:02:06 GMT 12
No problems, there is also a memorial with a life-size replica of his a/c set up as a giant weather vane. By the way, Bruce, who owns the farm reckons as a child he remembers that the remains of Pearces a/c were still visible in a now long gone gorse hedge  |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 7, 2006 21:08:59 GMT 12
Seriously? Or is that just his line for the tourists?
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Post by hairy on Mar 7, 2006 21:12:07 GMT 12
Seriously, he don't do the tourist thing. |
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Post by corsair67 on Mar 8, 2006 8:35:34 GMT 12
Yes, that's very true. Maybe that's part of the reason that Richard wasn't the first to fly: because he set the bar too high for himself early on in his experimentation?
Apart from the memorial at Waitohi, are there any other memorials in NZ to Richard Pearse?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 8, 2006 10:51:02 GMT 12
Motat's display is a nice memorial to him, even if their wording on signs implies he did fly first
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Post by amitch on Mar 8, 2006 13:25:32 GMT 12
The word to remember is "controlled" flight. The wrights first flight was controlled. Richards by his own admission was not.
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