The Richard Pearse story put MOTAT on the international stage as a leading heritage aviation museum with particular mana accruing in the 2003 Centennial of Flight celebrations around the world, and the associated academic debate, highlighting Kiwi ingenuity.
In the early 20th Century a number of
enterprising 'aviators' were working internationally on powered flight, including the Wright Brothers of Dayton, Ohio, who were recognised as making the first such controlled flight in December 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They flew their plane for 59 seconds, for 852 feet.
Richard Pearse, an early Kiwi engineer and inventor, on his farm near Temuka, designed and built an ‘aircraft’ that, as research indicated, flew a short distance in July 1903 - before the Wright Brothers. On Pearse’s death in 1953 his estate decided to sell the aircraft and other relics. Fortunately, their auctioneer advised the Canterbury Aero Club, whose President Harry Walker bought them - including the second aircraft built in the 1920’s, now restored at MOTAT - for 5 pounds. They were stored a hangar at Harewood.
MOTAT, through pioneer aviator and aviation historian George Bolt, was largely responsible for the recognition of Pearse as an inventor and aviation engineer. In 1956 George Bolt was involved in setting up a museum in Auckland and was tipped off by Capt. John Malcolm, a pilot with NZ National Airways, a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and a MOTAT founder. The aircraft was flown to Auckland in a USAF “Deep Freeze” Globemaster and stored. Many US airman offered good money to George Bolt to take it to a museum in America, but this was refused. MOTAT became the home of the iconic Pearse story. George later recovered parts of the first aircraft and a motorcycle assisted by a neighbour of Pearse’s - who obtained them when Pearse’s hay-shed was demolished - and from scouring dumps in the area. George Bolt went on into a full-on research project publicised in local and overseas papers and the telling of the Pearse story was born, generating a wide interest both here and overseas. In 1973 Gordon Ogilvie wrote The Riddle of Richard Pearse, his biography.
Left to right: At Timaru L to R: Don Fleming, Geoff Rodliffe and Frank Ford (the engineer who built it); Getting ready for official take off.
A full-scale replica of the original aircraft was built by Geoff Rodliffe and M Frazer, which came to MOTAT, and is now at Classic Flyers in Tauranga. For the Centenary of Flight celebrations in 2003, Geoff Rodliffe led a project to build a flying replica based on Pearse’s first aircraft design. This was to appear at an air pageant at Timaru marking the centenary celebration of Pearse’s first flight in 2003, and an associated function at the Pearse farm at Waitohi. He was supported primarily by Don Fleming, a senior RNZAF engineer and Phillip Heath, a technical designer, both MOTAT volunteers. The aircraft was to be powered by a modern microlight engine, although a working replica of Pearse’s engine was also built independently.
Above: Mercer private airstrip at Mercer with Ian Hambly, Andre Pointon and John Syme who worked with Geoff Rodliffe in what in essence was a gesture of respect for him. The replica was actually crashed and damaged while being towed by a ute.
The project was a great success, although the planned attempt to take off at Waitohi was foiled by atrocious weather. Trial runs indicated a high probability of a wobbly success, reminiscent of Pearse’s crashing into a hedge. The aircraft was formally certified by Civil Aviation as ZK-RWP with a height limit of 1,000 ft. Geoff Rodliffe and the replica travelled to the UK, courtesy of Air New Zealand, to be part of the Royal Aeronautical Society official celebrations in London and the replica was also displayed at the Flambards Museum in Cornwall where the Pearse family originated.
Geoff Rodliffe had a second personal replica building project based at Mercer which was supported by MOTAT personalities Ian Hambly, Andre Pointon, and John Syme.
The Pearse story was carried on by Ivan
Mudrovich who, in 2009, commenced building a large replica aircraft to see if his interpretation of Pearse’s 1903 aircraft design was capable of flight, with departures only to comply with Civil Aviation requirements for safety. The project ended in 2018 when Ivan died, once again coming close to proving Pearse’s design theories, but not quite nailing it.
But the story continues…
The Mudrovich replica has also just gone to the Classic Flyers museum in Tauranga. The Pearse second aircraft has been professionally restored and is part of the Science Centre display.
Words by Bill Rayner
Photos Courtesy Bill Rayner and Philip Heath
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