What was the aircraft?

[Dave Homewood]

I was looking through a 1932 issue of Auckland Weekly News on microfilm at the library (this magazine had oodles of excellent aviation photos and trivia in the 1930's).

Anyway there was a couple of photos of the first plane to land at the Hermitage, Mount Cook. It landed there in the week preceding the issue, which was dated 14 Dec 1932.

The pilot was Capt. T.W. White and passenger Mrs E.F. O'Leary.

The airfield used was Beach Hill Flat, near the Hermitage. They flew there from Timaru.

The first photo shows the plane on the ground with a lot of people in front, and the second shows it taking off again.

I wasn't sure what the aircraft was. It's a two seat biplane like a DH60 but it just didn't look like a Moth. The engine was not a Gipsy at least. Was it a Simmonds Spartan or something like that?

Also, it appeared to be white or silver but had interesting markings on the tail and smaller on the fuselage just behind the cowl, in the form of a dark (black? blue?) circle with a white five pointed star. It looked just like the roundel of the USAAF in about 1942-43.

Does anyone know what the aircraft type was, and what the markings meant? Was it a brand logo or something? Or just decoration.

I don't have scans of the photos I'm afraid.

[planeimages]

Now isn't that interesting. Captain (or SQNLDR) T.W.White is the name of "Smithy's intended pilot for the Codock. Maybe he was doing some research in NZ in connection with the proposed airline?

[Peter Lewis]

That was the colour scheme of New Zealand Airways Ltd. of Timaru - Hugh Mackay's White Star Line
The aircraft you describe was most likely a Simmonds Spartan - NZA had five of these (not all at once!) - ZK-AAY, ABC, ABK, ABN and ABZ.
Similar colours are still painted on the Spartan ABZ at Geraldine.

"Tiny" White was a regular pilot employee of New Zealand Airways, and prior to that was a founder member of the Auckland Service Aero Club in the early 1920s, and the first Instructor at the Hawkes Bay & East Coast AC in 1928. He later became the Chief Pilot of East Coast Airways in 1935.

There was a T W White who was prominent in aviation in Australia, and who later (from memory) became an MP and Cabinet Minister during the 1940s. I have my doubts that this is the same person.

[Bruce]

1932 is only a few years after the ZK- Rego system started, so I checked the early series of regos from the infamous list in David Rendel's Civil Aviation in NZ. the only real options for two place biplanes at the time seem to be the Gypsy Moth, Avro Avian or Symonds Spartan. The Timaru connection had me thinking De Havilland DH9 (NZAT operated some in the 1920s) but these had been scrapped by 1929.
I'm thinking probably a Spartan - note that this would be a different model to the one recently restored by Southair. I did a google search and found this page with pictures of Spartans in NZ in the 1930s - there is one at Hawea Flat in Central Otago which shows a five pointed star on the fuselage, but not as you describe it:
daveg4otu.tripod.com/airfields/nz.html

however, just to confuse the issue, DH moths carried the moth logo in a 6 pointed star on the forward fuselage!

[Dave Homewood]

It definately was not a Moth nor a DH9, and definately not the DH logo. I'm fairly convinced now that my initial hunch was correct and it was a Spartan. Cheers

[Peter Lewis]

As in this . . . ?

[Dave Homewood]

Yes, very much so. It was however all-over white or silver, and the ZK- code was obscured by people. That symbol is exactly right, same place, same size. It was repeated between the cowl and front cockpit about half the size.

Cool, thanks for solving that one. A Spartan, first plane to land at the Hermitage.