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The First to fly
| Richard Pearse of South Canterbury was the first New Zealander who tried
to fly. An extraordinary inventor and home-taught engineer, he built his
own petrol engines on his own farm, constructed an aircraft of his own
design, and undoubtedly achieved powered takeoffs in 1903 and subsequent
years. However, he was a loner who left few records and had few witnesses
to his endeavours. Sadly his trial and error efforts influenced no-one,
and the key issue for successful powered flight – stable control in the
air – remained out of reach to Pearse. Even in the US, a
government-supported project by Professor Samuel Langley of the
Smithsonian Institution ended in failure; controlled and sustained flight
required more than just brute force for take off.
And that was the specific achievement of the Wright Brothers. From 1899
they taught themselves to fly in gliders, studied wings and propellers in
a primitive wind tunnel, and kept meticulous records as they studied the
problems of flight. They proved that the secret for controlled flight was
an inter-linked control system so that an aircraft could both bank and
turn if it was to be steered safely and remain in stable flight. They
built their own light-weight but sufficiently powerful piston engines and
adapted their biplane with rudders, elevators and wing warping (today
aircraft use ailerons) to achieve their goal. On 17 December 1903 they
successfully flew their aircraft, conducting four flights with the longest
covering 260m. The following year in an improved ‘Flyer’ the brothers
showed they could fly regularly, turn and fly in circles, and extend their
duration in the air. The Wrights’ achievements were largely dismissed by
the Press and government officials (the first account of their flights was
published in a bee keepers’ magazine in 1905!). Yet by September 1907
their ‘Flyer No.3’ met or exceeded the requirements of the US Army for
a military flying machine. Suddenly the world paid attention and efforts
to build other and more powerful aircraft began.
Meanwhile in Europe, pioneers – largely, but not solely, in France -
were also attempting to achieve powered takeoffs and, by trial and error,
learn the secret of control in the air. (Which illustrates that Richard
Pearse’s achievements in this country, though ultimately limited, were
in fact up with the best then achieved world wide). The first powered
manned flight in Europe took place in late 1906, by Alberto Santos-Dumont.
After the Wrights demonstrated their Flyer No 3 at Paris in 1908, European
aviation began to advance rapidly. Louis Bleriot had already achieved
short hops in his monoplanes, then in the northern summer of 1909 he
competed against two other pioneer pilots for the challenge of flying
across the English Channel. On 25 July 1909 he made a 37 minute flight
across the Channel to Dover, landing safely; the era of ‘firsts’ and
record-breaking had begun. |
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