Kiwi Flight Before the Wright Brothers?

houseofmore writes "The Toronto Star is is reporting that New Zealander Richard Pearse may have very well made several flights beginning almost nine months before the Wright Brothers ever got off the ground. It also notes that "Mad Pearse's" machine was in some ways more advanced than the first Wright Flyer."

Comments

Mad Pearse

[Anonymous Coward]

More info on the man in question:

Richard Pearse: FIRST FLYER

Famous New Zealanders - Richard Pearse

And a sidenote from an article in Time magazine:

Flight Pioneers
RICHARD PEARSE
His neighbors called him "Mad Pearse," but in March 1903 the reclusive New Zealand farmer climbed into a monoplane he had built at his Waitohi property and flew for about 140 m before crashing into a hedge. It may not have been a sustained flight, but it was the most successful powered take-off until the Wright brothers entered the record books in December 1903.

Re:Mad Pearse

[Anonymous Coward]

Lord Of The Ring's Peter Jackson directed a fake documentary named Forgotten Silver. The movie showed footage from Richard Pearse's flight, and at the time no one knew the documentary was a fake until the next day.

That night on talkback radio (newstalk zb) there was a lot of joy. The occasional bitter american hating bastard called in, but no more that usual ;) It was really quite amazing, and the documentary promised that landmark event would be credited to New Zealand. It sounds silly, but it really was an awful feeling when the footage was announced as a hoax.

Still, excellent job. Good job Peter Jackson!

More Stuff on Bamboo Dick

[trotski]

Heres some more stuff:

Richard Pearse - Features some really cool pics of his aeroplane
Richard Pearse, Aviator - Features a cool VRML 3d model of his flying machine. Remember VRML? Also has some dimensioned drafts.
Richard Pearse - New Zealand Pioneer Aviator - IT's got soem schematics and descriptions of the engine he used.

Lots more cool stuff available out there if you feel like looking.

The Wrights flew before 1903

[richieb]

Actually, the Wrights had done plenty of glider flying experiments in 1901 and 1902, getting their control system worked out. In the process they beat most of the world glider flying records set by Lilienthal years before.

The flight in 1903 was the first powered flight.

The achievement of the Wright's was that they took a scientific approach to the problem of flight (eg. they invented the wind tunnel in the process) and that they were the ones who actually figured out how to control an airplane in flight.