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Aviation hero celebrated in Southland

ONE News - TVNZ | 7:57PM - Saturday, July 03, 2010


Replica of inventor Bert Pither's aeroplane. — Source: ONE News.

THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS of a milestone event in New Zealand aviation history has begun in Southland.

Descendents of Invercargill inventor Bert Pither have gathered at Mandeville, near Gore, to honour what is regarded as New Zealand's second ever aeroplane lift-off.

Pither's aviation heroics at a Southland beach came seven years after Richard Pearce flew his aeroplane.

Pither swore an oath in a Melbourne Court that he had flown in the aeroplane, but there will always be a touch of intrigue as to whether Pither did actually take off as no-one was there to witness it.

Test pilot Gerry Chisholm can understand Pither not wanting to fly his invention more than once.

"I think it was probably exhilarating to him that his contraption flew. But it probably scared him quite a bit too," he says.

The replica Pither Monoplane has been built as close as possible to the original, with a four cylinder motor pulling 40 horsepower.

Descendents gathered to honour Pither could not have been more proud.

"It's great to see a lot of members of the family here, ones we didn't even know existed," says Des Pither, descendant.

The replica Pither Monoplane is on permanent display at Mandeville Airfield.

• Watch the ONE News story (video clip).

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/aviation-hero-celebrated-in-southland-3625093


Bert Pither's first flight and story may go to film

By ROSEMARIE SMITH in Gore - The Southland Times | 5:00AM - Monday, 05 July 2010


PITHER PERFORMS: Pilot Jerry Chisum puts Croydon Aircraft's Pither monoplane replica through its paces. — Photo: FRASER FALCONER.

A CENTURY after his lonely flight experiments on a chilly southern beach, Invercargill engineer Bert Pither's star is rising, with a feature film proposed for take-off.

Independent film-maker Malcolm Hall, who brought a film crew to Croydon Aircraft Company's centennial commemoration of Pither's single 1910 flight, confirmed producer Richard Thomas was seeking funding for a movie featuring the Pither story.

The crew had come to shoot documentary material to provide head and tail of the movie.

Mr Hall indicated he wasn't able to say much more, as he had come to the assignment at the last moment, with Mr Thomas absent overseas.

"Up til Thursday I'd never heard of Bert Pither," he said.

"But it's got all the elements – adventure, slightly crazy characters, a bit of scandal, a successful flight."

The fact he died in obscurity provides that dramatic arc. Unlike Pither's original semi-secret beach experiments covered after the fact by only one persistent journalist, Saturday's multiple commemorative flights of his replica monoplane also attracted a news film crew, print journalists and photographers, plus a crowd of onlookers including many Pither family members.

Great-great-nephew Nigel Pither, of Christchurch, said the event had been quite emotional for family members who had grown up on stories of Pither's achievements, but knowing he didn't feature in the official historical record.

Young family members doing school projects on Uncle Bert had met with disbelief, and now they were getting confirmation his story was true.

"All of a sudden people out there are saying, 'Is that your relative'?" Mr Pither said. "Today has been quite incredible."

Pilot Jerry Chisum expressed admiration for Pither's command of the disciplines of both airframe and engine building.

He gathered up the technology and built what amounts to a spaceship for his time, he said.

At this period there were still many choices to be made over critical details, and Pither made all the right choices.

He was not only a mechanical genius but a visionary. Future recognition of Pither's place in history will receive prominent recognition in Errol Martyn's forthcoming book on New Zealand aviation history 1868 to 1914.

While the lack of independent witnesses will always preclude formal recognition as New Zealand's first successful powered flight, Pither's machine was one of the two most practical aircraft built in New Zealand by 1914, even if it made only one flight, he said.

It was an outstanding achievement for someone working in isolation half a world away from the centre of aviation activity at the time. Martyn dismissed claims Richard Pearse had flown earlier, hinting his book will present new documentary evidence discounting dates reliant on oral sources for the South Canterbury inventor's experiments, as well as disputing claims he even achieved real flight.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/3883762/Bert-Pithers-first-flight-and-story-may-go-to-film