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Post by planeimages on Jun 24, 2009 18:32:52 GMT 12
The book is generally available. K-Mart seems to be selling them in Sydney at the lowest prices, well below RRP. Craig. I didn't take a camera to the book launch. My wife took a small digital but the darkened room gave everyone red eyes. Here are two shots: Charles Kingsford-Smith signing books with Peter FitzSimons at the Sydney Opera House. Mary and Charles Kingsford-Smith NB. Charles (jnr) hyphenates his surnames because Americans (where he lives in Seattle) think “Kingsford” is just a middle name rather than part of his surname if the hyphen is not used. In our research we discovered that the hyphen in his father’s name was, in fact, often used despite what I had been led to believe by a person who is an authority on such matters. For instance, Charles (jnr) told me that his father’s birth certificate includes a hyphen in his surname. Smithy’s application for his commercial licence, in his own handwriting, includes the hyphen and the registration certificate of Kingsford-Smith Aerial Services Ltd does likewise. However, photographs of the latter business’s hangar at Mascot show no hyphen and the word “Service” is used instead of “Services”. All totally useless information except for the anoraks amongst us.
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Post by planeimages on Jun 23, 2009 21:52:32 GMT 12
Hi Stu,
If you have a chance to hear Peter talk about his book in NZ then grab it. He just bubbles with enthusiasm and anecdotes.
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Post by planeimages on Jun 23, 2009 19:34:15 GMT 12
Many thanks for your comments Craig. You commented that I was researching something a while ago. Well spotted, Sir. The most amazing thing was that Peter was able to weave this story around CKS and yet keep the chronology in the correct order and very relevant.
The experiments by Lawrence Hargrave had far-reaching implications in the quest for human flight and I was fascinated to read, in my research, just how much he contributed. It appears that the Wrights were loath to give credit to others for fear that their applications for various patents might be compromised if they admitted that they had used research by Hargrave, et al, in their designs.
An "after publication" treat was to meet Charles (jnr) and Mary Kingsford-Smith, John and Valda Ulm and so many of the people who helped put the book together at the launch at the Sydney Opera House by the PM.
A staggering co-incidence was that Charles Ulm, the grandson of Charles Ulm (snr), attended one of my driving courses shortly after the launch. Small world.
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Post by planeimages on Jun 19, 2009 18:55:43 GMT 12
The cover of Australian Author Peter FitzSimons’ book “Charles Kingsford Smith and Those Magnificent Men published by HarperCollins. Peter Finlay was the principal aviation researcher for this work and a great deal of very helpful assistance came from Dave Homewood, Megan Wishart and Allan Rudge at MOTAT, Peter Dobson at the New Plymouth Aero Club at Bell Block, Ross McWilliams, the son of Tom McWilliams (the NZ radio operator on board the Southern Cross on several flights) and Jo Beresford, the great grand niece of the late George Hood. With over 1,000 endnotes, which will be of inestimable benefit to researchers to follow, and over 2,000 hours of research by Peter FitzSimons, Sonja Goernitz, Peter’s FitzSimons’ principal general researcher, Peter Finlay and Ron Cuskelly, the book will compliment Ian Mackersey’s definitive work on Kingsford Smith with even more revealing stories about “Smithy” and his contemporary aviators. Thank you everyone from New Zealand who helped us so willingly.
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Post by planeimages on Mar 7, 2009 18:48:18 GMT 12
Quite possible that Hammond went to the UK under his own steam I will look deeper into this aspect. Some reports tell that he was a Lieutenant in the AFC. The note that he was a Captain is interesting and I will follow up. Possibly his rank by the time he went to the US. Thank you ever so much for the details on Hammond and his wife. Very helpful. The Boxkites were sold to W E Hart who ran a flying school at Penrith NSW. The Penrith grounds became a Speedway and are now Army property. He also set up flying at Ham Common which became Richmond RAAF eventually. Hart secured only one of the Gnomes, the other apparently going to India where Bristol had a second Air Mission. Hart's engine ended up in WA powering an aircraft at Kalgoorlie. The remains of the Gnome are in a Museum in WA. This site has details: www.hibeach.net/biplane.htmlHart apparently did have one or two more flights. He went to the UK with the AFC and said that he "turned out a number of pilots" but he suffered from some petit mal attacks (mild presentations of Absence Epilepsy) as a result of his almost fatal prang at Richmond in a self-built monoplane powered by the same Omega engine as he used in his Boxkites. He was bundled home from the UK and discharged. Later he tried to return to flying but gave it away due to family pressure. He bought one of Hinkler's aeroplanes but I don't think he flew it. Now Dave, I have not seen Forgotten Silver could you send me details in a PM please? The Pearse film goes on a bit and one has to be careful not to take such things as gospel. I was successful in the Trade Me auctions and I have secured The Riddle of Richard Pearse and The History of Flight in NZ. I have bids going on another couple of the titles mentioned at the art of this thread. Thanks for the tip. Gee this forum is good.
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Post by planeimages on Mar 6, 2009 17:20:15 GMT 12
The staggering thing about Pearse's machine was the bamboo construction of the wing. Possibly, quite inadvertently the wing covering allowed a rough aerofoil shape to form when the air passed over it in much the same way that modern hang-gliders allow their cloth to billow and take up the right shape.
The clause in the Wright Bros contract with the Smithsonian says it all. In much the same way that Houdini had a statement already written out for witnesses to sign when he flew at Diggers Rest. I was informed by a person who is very knowledgeable about early Australian flights (and who owns some hardware connected with the era) that Houdini rushed up to Colin Banks after he had pranged his Bleriot and made him sign a document stating that Banks' "flight" was not a controlled flight!
Hopefully his research will lead to print over here and in its own small way will perpetuate Pearse's and other pioneering Kiwis' efforts.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Post by planeimages on Feb 9, 2009 18:59:27 GMT 12
Trivia 1. Richard Todd, who plays Guy Penrose Gibson, took part in the airborne assault on Pegasus Bridge on D-Day. 2. The film's theme tune, The Dam Busters' March, by Eric Coates became an instant classic for brass band and can still be heard in football grounds during England Football Team matches. One version released featured dialogue extracts from the movie (the bombing run). 3. There were two television advertisements for a brand of beer, Carling Black Label, which played on the theme of The Dam Busters. Both adverts were made before the English football team broke a 35 year losing streak against Germany. The first showed a German guard on top of a dam catching a bouncing bomb as if he were a goalkeeper. The second showed a British tourist throwing a Union Jack towel like a bouncing bomb to reserve a pool side seat before the German tourists could reserve them with their towels. Both actions were followed by the comment "I bet he drinks Carling Black Label"[1] The second ad appears to have been exorcised from the internet. It was a beauty and has been held up as a classic use of metaphors in advertising. The Poms will never let the world forget how they won WWII. John Cleese helps them in their campaign. www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/The-Dam-Busters-(movie)It could be fun like this: or Americanised like this: The attack on the "Death Star" in the climax of the film Star Wars is similar in many respects to the strategy of Operation Chastise — Rebel pilots have to fly through a trench while evading enemy fire and drop a single special weapon at a precise distance from the target in order to destroy the entire base with a single explosion; if one run fails another run must be made by a different pilot. Some scenes from the Star Wars climax are very similar to those in the The Dam Busters and some of the dialogue is nearly identical in the two films. For the missile defense program, see Strategic Defense Initiative. ... The Pink Floyd film The Wall, and therefore the soundtrack album, contains scenes from the film, notably when Gibson's dog called 'Nigger' is killed by a car, just before the planes take off. A reunited Pink Floyd at the London Live 8 concert on July 2, 2005. ... The word nigger is an extremely controversial term used in many English-speaking countries, including the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia to refer to individuals with dark skin, especially those of African descent who previously were racially classified by the now outdated term Negro. ... www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/The-Dam-Busters-(movie)
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Post by planeimages on Feb 6, 2009 20:28:11 GMT 12
The bottom edge of the window frame is visible and it is not inverted in relation to the ground.
And the shadow of the foot plate is upside down.
Of course, being "downunder" the sun probably shines from the ground up.
Pull the other one!!
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Post by planeimages on Jan 24, 2009 12:38:31 GMT 12
Tom Moon. Aerobatic champion. Great bloke, R.I.P.
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Post by planeimages on Jan 21, 2009 19:34:48 GMT 12
Tom was a lovely man and a delight to watch performing with his Extra 300.
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Post by planeimages on Jan 18, 2009 20:48:18 GMT 12
I am looking for a leather or cloth flying helmet. It must not have a strap on the top to hold headphones nor have pockets on the sides for headphones.
Ideally cream or red.
Aviator-style goggles required also. These will need to be able to be worn with specs.
Getting ready for some windscreen-down motoring in the MG TC. Rather jumping the gun, I suppose as the body is not back yet from the painters.
peter@finlays.com.au if you have any leads.
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Post by planeimages on Jan 18, 2009 20:43:48 GMT 12
Scary to think back. I flew on the first TAA Viscount flight from Brisbane to Townsville in early 1995. There were only two Viscounts being operated at that time and both subsequently crashed, one being the aircraft under discussion The other crashed into Botany Bay in a storm. One has to wonder if the latter broke up for the same reason that RMQ lost its wing in WA.
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Post by planeimages on Jan 14, 2009 15:32:12 GMT 12
Just like my 100" Standard" class. Mine has R/C and I'll bet that one did, too. Great effect with the men on the cloud sending it back.
My old man in the clouds seems to protect me, too.
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