How can you make that statement after looking at a model of Pearce's aircraft on a public monument?
I didn't
But also your own quote seems to suggest stability/control problems
,the aircraft also would appear to have ultra low aspect ratio wings and would prob have been a little draggy.
As I explained to simplex - I am neutral on this subject but I do not see why any of the pioneers should be discredited - simplex accused the wrights of lying about flying before 1908 - when even if one is unhappy with the criteria for the 1903 flight - the wrights 1905 flights were
way ahead of any other pioneers and I would say also again that the wrights tackled the whole powered flight problem in a very structured practical and intuitive way !
They were not perfect and allowed themselves to get sidetracked by legal wrangles etc but that should not detract from their aviation achievements !
Pearse made several attempts to fly in 1901, but due to insufficient engine power he achieved no more than brief hops. The following year he redesigned his engine to incorporate double-ended cylinders with two pistons each. Researchers recovered components of his engine (including cylinders made from cast-iron drainpipes) from rubbish dumps in 1963. Replicas of the 1903 engine suggest that it could produce about 15 horsepower (11 kW).
Verifiable eyewitnesses describe Pearse crashing into a hedge on two separate occasions during 1903. His monoplane must have risen to a height of at least three metres on each occasion. Good evidence exists that on 31 March 1903 Pearse achieved a powered, though poorly controlled, flight of several hundred metres.