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Kotere memorial, Mangere

On 10 May 1938, Union Airways Lockheed 10 Electra ZK-AFC Kotare crashed shortly after taking off for Palmerston North from the Mangere Aerodrome. Both members of the crew, the pilot, Commander C.M. Duthie, and the second officer, W.J. Peel, died (there were no passengers on board). This was the first fatal accident to occur on a scheduled air service in New Zealand.

On 10 May 2004, a commemorative service was held unveiling a memorial to the victims on the corner of John Goulter Drive and Ansett Place, Auckland International Airport.

Sources: Electra Flying: The Lockheed 10 Electra in New Zealand and the Pioneering of the Main Trunk Air Service, ed. Richard J. Waugh, Manukau City, 1998, pp. 24-51 [esp. pp. 33-4]; 'Honouring crash pilots', Aucklander East, 28/4/2004, p. 7; 'Pioneering incident remembered', Airport Times, no. 31, June 2004, p. 4.

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Images and information: Bruce Ringer, Auckland Libraries, 2013

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Wright Brothers flight, 1908

In 1903, Americans Orville and Wilbur Wright completed the world’s first successful controlled powered flight at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This British Pathé film clip shows the Wright Brothers flying in 1908.

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On Thursday December the 17th 1903, news came clattering across the world’s wire machines that two brothers from Dayton in Ohio had flown a curious looking air machine over the beach at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina for more than a minute (sic); and if anyone was sceptical about the claim, these pictures were to prove it was true.

For several years at the turn of the century, dozens of groups in Europe and America had been trying to get a flying machine to work. But defying gravity wasn’t proving easy. Nevertheless, Wilbur and Orville Wright, after a long period of trial and error, found a formula that seemed to work. The problem they and everyone else had faced was how to generate enough power to get the machine off the ground and to keep it going once it was up in a stable and steady flight. The Wrights had developed a lightweight 25-horsepower engine which provided a much higher power to weight ratio than anything that had gone before. With this, and a little help on the launch site from a heavy lead weight*, they were airborne and away.

This dramatically successful flight was the result of several years of secret work by the Wrights using models in a wind tunnel near their home. Only the most far-sighted and enthusiastic believed at the time that what the brothers were doing would have any lasting significance. But what they’d just witnessed was the start of a transport revolution. From now on, the world was to become, in many ways, a much smaller place.

*The catapult technique was not used for the flights of 17 December 1903. On that occasion their aeroplane left the ground under its own power. The longest of the four flights that day was a shade under a minute, at 59 seconds.

British Pathé Youtube

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The War in the Air

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5o-fhBKf8Y&list=PL40A6146642DEAF47&feature=share&index=1

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Hugh Reilly

Hugh Reilly, from Hawke's Bay, was the first New Zealander to see action in the air during the First World War, flying reconnaissance missions in France in September 1914. Posted to Egypt, and then to Mesopotamia (Iraq) in April 1915, Reilly commanded the RFC’s Flight in Mesopotamia that later became No. 30 Squadron, supporting British and Indian forces trying to capture Baghdad from the Ottoman Turks. Captured in November 1915 after crash-landing his damaged aircraft, Reilly spent the rest of the war in an Ottoman prison camp. Awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and mentioned in despatches for his work in Mesopotamia, he served in the Royal Air Force until retirement in 1934, as a group captain, then served five years with the Air Ministry’s Directorate of Operations and Intelligence.

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E.W. Martyn Collection

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Royal Air Force Cadets journal

Roosters and Fledglings: The Monthly Journal of the Royal Air Force Cadets. This first issue is dated May 1918, the month after the creation of the Royal Air Force. With detailed coverage of cadets sports, etc, this monthly publication would have been well-known to many of the pilot graduates from the two flying schools in New Zealand who arrived in England that year.

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Air Force Museum of New Zealand
Reference: 1988/148.16
Permission of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Remnant of German aircraft

Fragment featuring the Cross Pattée taken from the rudder of a German aircraft shot down over the Western Front in 1918. The Cross Pattée was replaced by the straight-armed Balkenkreuz from March 1918.

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Air Force Museum of New Zealand
Reference: 1989/331.1
Permission of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Alfred de Bathe Brandon

Wellington lawyer Alfred de Bathe Brandon was the first New Zealand airman to receive a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) during the First World War. (Hugh Reilly’s DSO award was published in the London Gazette a fortnight after Brandon’s, but it was in recognition of service that took place the year before Brandon’s actions of 1916.)

Born and raised in Wellington, he was working for his father’s legal firm, Brandon, Hislop and Johnston, when war broke out in August 1914. Active in both the Volunteer and Territorial Forces, Brandon resigned his commission in the 5th (Wellington) Regiment to go to England and learn to fly at his own expense. After seven weeks’ instruction at the Hall Flying School at Hendon, he qualified as a pilot.

Brandon joined the Royal Flying Corps in December 1915, and earned fleeting fame for his courageous attacks on German Zeppelins over eastern England the following year. On the night of 31 March 1916, his flimsy BE.2c biplane attacked Zeppelin L-15 at 9000 feet above London. The massive airship later crashed into the English Channel and all but one of its crew taken prisoner. Brandon was credited with the victory until investigations concluded that anti-aircraft fire had inflicted the crucial damage. In a subsequent action on the night of 23 September, he helped bring down Zeppelin L-33.

Awarded the DSO and Military Cross and mentioned in despatches for his wartime exploits, Brandon attained the rank of major on being appointed to command No. 50 (Home Defence) Squadron from October 1917 (taking over from another New Zealander, Major Alexander Watson).

In May 1919, Brandon returned to New Zealand a war hero. Although he never flew again, he did make a further contribution to military aviation, helping senior Royal Air Force officer Colonel Arthur Bettington draft a report for the New Zealand government on the country's air defences. After reviewing existing and potential airfields, Brandon prepared a section of the report dealing with landing grounds. This task took him six months, after which he resumed practising law.

Alfred de Bathe Brandon died in Upper Hutt on 19 June 1974, aged 90.

By Geoffrey Bentley; adapted by Gareth Phipps

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Alfred de Bathe Brandon

Wellington lawyer, Second Lieutenant Alfred de Bathe Brandon pictured in early 1916 wearing a leather flying coat. He was famed for his attacks on German Zeppelin airships and ended the war a Major with the DSO, MC and two mentions in despatches.

Read Alfred de Bathe Brandon's biography here

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Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: 1/1-013518-G
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Canterbury Aviation Company badge

Pilot’s ‘wings’ badge from the Canterbury (NZ) Aviation Company. Henry Wigram established the Canterbury Flying School at Sockburn (now Wigram) aerodrome near Christchurch in 1916. Training commenced in August 1917 and 170 pilots had graduated by the Armistice in November 1918. All but 20 sailed for Britain to receive further training from the British air services, although only a handful flew operationally, with most of the others still undergoing ground or flying training in Britain at war’s end.

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Air Force Museum of New Zealand
Reference: 1991/265.6
Permission of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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British RE8 reconnaissance aircraft

British RE.8 two-seater corps-reconnaissance aircraft, nicknamed the 'Harry Tate' after a popular Scottish music-hall comedian. Introduced in November 1916, the RE.8 acquired a reputation for stability in flight - good for observation but a handicap when trying to evade German fighters, though experienced and determined crews proved that it could defend itself vigorously when under attack. Some 4000 were built and it remained the reconnaissance workhorse of the Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force for the rest of the war.

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Air Force Museum of New Zealand
Reference: MUS020112
Permission of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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British aircraft warning notice

Friend or foe? This 1915 British public notice provides identifying silhouettes of German and British aircraft and airships, along with general advice as to what action to take during an air raid.

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