Airborn

[Koliedrus]

This is better than sucking a crawdad's head.

http://www.zurqui.co.cr/crinfocus/paper/airplane.html

[Billyman]

Funny you should post that link. About a year ago (at one of Jo's family gatherings) most of the kids where making paper airplanes. I had made a few that they'd never seen and showed them how to make their own. Knowing that another gathering was coming up soon, I wanted something that not even I had seen or made before. A quick search on the ole google and I too ran across that same link.

It's a really cooj plane and almost like the one that little brainy-ack chicken bitty dude on Fog Horn Leg Horn only it won’t shoot other planes down in mid-air. :(

[skalie]

Did you guys know that the first person to fly an motorised airplane was a New Zealander?

Name was Pierce.

[Koliedrus]

I was close to searching when I thought, "Self, I think Skalie should provide the evidence."

Fire away.

[SimpleSimon]

December 17, 1903. Orville Wright pilots the first powered flying machine in a flight lasting 12 seconds and traversing a distance of 121 feet at 10:35 a.m. at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

First sustained powered flight in the United Kingdom was in October 1908, by an American kite flying instructor (manned kites) named Samuel Franklin Cody, at the Royal Army Balloon school for artillery observers.

The only Percy I could find reference to was Percy Sinclair Pilcher, a Scot, who was a pioneer of aviation and might have been the first man to acheive powered flight had not adverse weather conditions intervened.

See:

http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/pilcher.html


One rainy day in October 1899, a crowd stood in the rain at Stanford Park, near Market Harborough, in England, to see Percy Pilcher make his first test of a power-driven triplane glider (4 hp engine weighing 40 lbs). Percy Pilcher looked at the sky and shook his head. The weather was not to be trusted. But the crowd grew restless. The long wait and the rain were fast convincing them of the soundness of logic they had often repeated, "If man had been intended to fly, God would have given him wings."

Not to disappoint the crowd utterly, Pilcher prepared to make a glider flight in his tried and trusty "Hawk" as he had done many times before. All was ready. Pilcher took his place and the machine was being towed rapidly over the ground when the tow-rope broke. The crowd murmured in disgust. Hastily the rope was repaired and another start was made.

Breathlessly, they saw Pilcher sailing splendidly into the air, up and up to a height of nearly thirty feet--suddenly a guide wire in the tail snapped. The tail collapsed. And before the eyes of the crowd could credit what they saw, down came Pilcher and his "Hawk" in a heap upon the crowd. Two days later Pilcher passed away without regaining consciousness, one of the earliest martyrs to aviation.

Cite your evidence, Skalie.

See also:

http://www.flight100.org/history_intro.html

[skalie]

Oops, spelt the name wrong.

http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/pearse1.html

:)

[SimpleSimon]

Interesting. Never heard of the guy. Oh, the power of publicity.

[Koliedrus]

I'll be damned.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Richard+Pearse

From skalie's link:

May 11, 1903 - This, my opinion, [ie. the opinion of Bill Sherwood] was man's first real flight. Pearse took off along the side of the Opihi River, turned left to fly over the 30' tall river bank, then turned right to fly parallel to the middle of the river. After flying nearly 1,000 yards, his engine began to overheat and lost power, thus forcing a landing way down the dry-ish riverbed. One of the locals, Arthur Tozer, was crossing the river at the time and was rather surprised to have Pearse fly right over his head!

Alert yon media!

Oh, right. Already done ;)

[PrinceOfStorms]

This is a perennial here in New Zealand. Most of us (in my experience) are embarrassed by claims that Richard Pearce was the first to fly. Even he gave that honour to the Wright brothers. If I recall correctly, Pearce didn't actually gain altitude in his "flight", so it was more of a sustained motorised glide. But still, every once in a while in Kiwiland, someone decides to bring it out again and claim that the US is denying us credit for his innovation. I blame a lot of this on our cultural inferiority complex (see also the reasonably recent posts here about whether NZ or Australia invented the pavlova).

[SimpleSimon]

Understood.

If the account given here is correct, then his claim to be the first to fly a motorised aircraft is valid. The wright brothers never attained anything close to that distance or control until 3 years into their flight test program.

Assuming reliable eyewitness testimony is avalable to support the described flights, he might very well be the first man to fly a motorised plane. The Wright brothers Kitty Hawk flyer was nothing more than a motorised glider.

[skalie]

Originally posted by PrinceOfStorms
This is a perennial here in New Zealand. Most of us (in my experience) are embarrassed by claims that Richard Pearce was the first to fly. Even he gave that honour to the Wright brothers. If I recall correctly, Pearce didn't actually gain altitude in his "flight", so it was more of a sustained motorised glide. But still, every once in a while in Kiwiland, someone decides to bring it out again and claim that the US is denying us credit for his innovation. I blame a lot of this on our cultural inferiority complex (see also the reasonably recent posts here about whether NZ or Australia invented the pavlova).

Fuck, times have have changed.

In my day there was nothing more intriguing than the idea of some eccentric farmer dicking around with a homemade airplane, maybe flying it before the famous Wright brothers flew theirs, and not really giving a fuck if anyone noticed that he had done it.

The famous Kiwi ingenuity.

Then again, in my day there wasn't a cultural inferiority complex, and certainly not one involving Australia.

Embarrassed? You're either on a wind up or an immigrant.

[PrinceOfStorms]

Originally posted by skalie
In my day there was nothing more intriguing than the idea of some eccentric farmer dicking around with a homemade airplane, maybe flying it before the famous Wright brothers flew theirs, and not really giving a fuck if anyone noticed that he had done it.


Pearce is a fascinating man and did some impressive work, but claiming that he did things that even he said he didn't do isn't honouring his life in my opinion.

Originally posted by skalie
Then again, in my day there wasn't a cultural inferiority complex, and certainly not one involving Australia.


New Zealand's cultural inferiority complex dates back to the 19th Century... Look at New Zealander's attitudes toward our version of English for an example. New Zealand just doesn't have that well developed a sense of national identity. This has led to a general dismissal of things distinctly NZ (see also our attitudes towards NZ art, music, comedy, poetry, etc. until very recently, and even now the cringe factor is still very much evident in some areas) and an obsession with what we perceive ourselves as excelling in on the international stage (e.g., rugby and yachting). Look at our desperate clinging to our anti-nuclear stance as being vitally important on the world stage and how we crave approval for having it. Look at the passion with which people argue that Crowded House, Murray Ball, pavlova, Russell Crowe, etc. are New Zealand and not Australian. You don't see a cultural inferiority complex there? New Zealand is, as a whole, quite desperate for the approval of other countries. The shameless interviews of Liza Gibbons spring to mind here :). Consider also our unwillingness to stop allowing appeals to the Privy Council. New Zealand judges aren't seen as competent enough to rule on the really important stuff by many people. Until something New Zealand is seen as successful on the world stage, and thus granted approval from other countries, many New Zealanders just don't want to know about it.

Originally posted by skalie
Embarrassed? You're either on a wind up or an immigrant.

Neither I'm afraid :). If you can get hold of some recent issues of the New Zealand Listener, you'll find yet another round of the Pearce debate and plenty of people who, like me, find the whole desperate claims of Pearce being the first to fly an embarrassment.

[skalie]

Originally posted by PrinceOfStorms
Look at the passion with which people argue that Crowded House, Murray Ball, pavlova, Russell Crowe, etc. are New Zealand and not Australian.

Don't forget The Swingers.

And, yes, I tend to forget how embarrassing it can be to be confronted by a nationalist from one's culture.

NZ listener within hands reach, Asians with meningococcal appears to be the top story.

Tell me, POS, what are the employment possibilities for an aged Flash guru (database backed, not fancy shit) in New Zealand in the next few years?

[PrinceOfStorms]

Originally posted by skalie
And, yes, I tend to forget how embarrassing it can be to be confronted by a nationalist from one's culture.


The thing is, I don't think it's really nationalism. It looks like nationalism from some angles, but really I think it's a manifestation of this huge national inferiority complex. Nothing in NZ can be good unless it has been recognised as such by another country. Until that point, it's likely to be seen as crap. In NZ, World Series Baseball is the topic of many a joke because we just couldn't name something a World Series like that. The problem comes when someone in NZ does get some international recognition--then everyone goes wild and starts to act like a nationalist (Anika Moa being a good recent example, signed to Atlantic and proclaimed the world's next big thing here in NZ).

Originally posted by skalie
NZ listener within hands reach, Asians with meningococcal appears to be the top story.


Go back a few issues and Pearce was, if I recall correctly, the cover story. Letters would have been for the following couple of weeks.

Originally posted by skalie
Tell me, POS, what are the employment possibilities for an aged Flash guru (database backed, not fancy shit) in New Zealand in the next few years?

Tough question. The NZ IT industry is short of good people, and there will always be work for them if they are prepared to travel for it, but otherwise it is on the flat side. This is one reason for me staying cocooned in academia for now.

[SimpleSimon]

Slim to none, from looking at the available employment listings. They damned sure ain't got a place for the likes of me, and I suspect that would be true for an aging expat wanting to go "home".

Remember, "you can never go home again." `Specially if you are a wannbe cheesehead.

[skalie]

Originally posted by SimpleSimon
Slim to none, from looking at the available employment listings.

Source?

[skalie]

Originally posted by PrinceOfStorms
The NZ IT industry is short of good people, and there will always be work for them if they are prepared to travel for it.

Travel for it?

[Venus]

Damnit! That airplane sucked! It didn't fly straight. Of course, I'm wasting time at work, so it's not exactlly perfactly cimetrical, but still!

[PrinceOfStorms]

Originally posted by skalie
Travel for it?

Go where the work is. Most IT work at the moment is in Auckland and Wellington and a lot of it is contract.

[Koliedrus]

Originally posted by Venus
Damnit! That airplane sucked! It didn't fly straight. Of course, I'm wasting time at work, so it's not exactlly perfactly cimetrical, but still!

Well, there ya go!

Not-exactlly-perfactly-cimetrical --> Didn't-fly-straight.

I don't think it's a design flaw ;)

Keep trying till it works. Then you get to show off.

"Somebody get me a piece of paper, dammit... and another beer."

[skalie]

Originally posted by SimpleSimon
Slim to none, from looking at the available employment listings.

Source?