Cavalcade Of Flight: Perth, 13Dec03

[Capn Bloggs]

She's On! Mal Yeo from Edith Cowan Uni (Aviation Section) has organised a 190 aeroplane flypast from Cottesloe along the river at 700ft to Heirisson Island to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Flight (the actual date being the 17th, next Wednesday).

The first aircraft gaggle is leaving Cottesloe at 1500 and tracking to Point Resolution (a few hundred metres from Alan's old place), then along the river (should be over Perth Water at about 1505). In the flypast is National Jet's Avro RJ70, with 50 Canteen troops on board, a collection of medium-metal from Skippers, a Lear 45, Mustang, Near-Jet, Plastic Parrots from Pearce and numerous other bugsmashing types.

So, grab the kids, a few tinnies (and the missus if appropriate) and head to the river for a fun afternoon celebrating a great occasion.

[ennui]

Exceedingly appropriate number of posts Bloggs for such an auspicious occasion.
Serendipity perhaps? Wouldn't be manipulation or foresight! That never (IMHO) occurs on this forum.
:ok:
Nevertheless congratulations are in order.
Which pub will have the best view?
Lochiem and here's to the health of cardinal Puff.

[Knackers]

I'd give a lot to be sitting on the Swan River foreshore to see that.

[Torres]

I'm sure it will be an interesting spectacle - but if it's to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight, why is the fly past nine months too late?????

Man's first powered flight occurred in March 1903 - not December 1903!! :confused: :confused:

See here (http://www.cornwallgb.com/cornwall_england_airplane.html)

[Capn Bloggs]

101 posts by me: now that was a coincidence!

The best pub would be Steves by the uni! Otherwise, the bar at Kings Park looking over the Narrows. Another good psot would be the bar at the Barrack Street jetty. Or coffee at the cafe at the Old Brewery!!

Torres, I'll sool my local Total Aviation Person onto your allegation that a pommie flew before the Yanks!

[Sperm Bank]

Hey Bloggs will you be flying the RJ or are they concerned you will do what you did over Syd harbour bridge in your Mirage in 1988?

[Capn Bloggs]

This shambles made it into The West (http://www.thewest.com.au/20031213/news/general/tw-news-general-home-sto117050-pic22369.html) .

Calm Down Spermbank: he's a trashauler now!

[Sperm Bank]

Thank you Bloggs. I see yourself and "the ageing nuisance" taking part in this spectacular. Was that "senior" in terms of AGE or EXPERIENCE?

Should be a fun day particularly for all those kids. Look forward to the news reports tonight detailing a "blatant disregard for protocol and non-conformist attitudes".

Have a good day.

P.S. Trust you will have your camera on board for the compulsory photo shoot along the way.

[P51D]

Can't believe the sarcasm of some of you guys. Anyway i was in it today and it was just fantastic. Big congrats to Mal Yeo and his team for a very well organised event on a day when Perth looked an absolute picture - well done Mal!!

[Sperm Bank]

P51D it's all a bit of innocent ribbing mate. Nothing serious. Glad to hear you enjoyed it. At least WA had the presence of mind to celebrate the ocassion in style, unlike the rest of the country.

[geoffrey thomas]

Captain Bloggs: What, pray tell is wrong with the West's coverage? We have tried to give the event as much coverage as possible.
Please explain?
GT

[Islander Jock]

Geoff, c'mon mate you should be used to it by now.;) You know the drill 'Some of the people all of the time .....' etc etc

Unfortunately I was earthbound for the day but it was great to see all those who participated coming back with nothing but smiles on their faces from being part of a great celebration.

The only casualties I am aware of were:
2 x cone markers (1 prop stuck and another run over):eek:
1 x MAYDAY call but the pilot concerned wished he hadn't uttered that word about 15 seconds later. Good to see POLAIR 1 crew foaming at the mouth and blasting off towards Powerhouse to assist. Fortunately not required though. and
1 x plonker who when given "Clear for Takeoff" replied with 'Tallyho' :rolleyes:

The post op p1ssup at RACWA maintenance hangar was excllent as well. Hope no one got rumbled by the booze bus on South street though. :uhoh:

[Capn Bloggs]

P51D and GT,
I apologise profusely for sounding sarcastic! That wasn't the intention at all. GT, the "shambles" (in jest, of course) in my earlier post referred to the event, not your excellent press coverage, which I thought was very good. Sorry!

Torres,
I have checked with my TAP, and he says that the Wright Brothers were the first to fly with lateral control (using wing warping, which they patented). The others just launched and hoped for the best, whereas the Flyer was being steered. Hence it is recognised as the "first" powered flight.

Yes, it was a hoot. Well done to Mal Yeo for a great event that will take pride of place in logbooks.

Apparently, the cojo on this aeroplane is reported to have said "lets fly between those two buildings: that'll stir 'em up!". Good thing the experienced captain decided against it!

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-10/431950/city.JPG

PS: Contrary to the statement made on 127.9 by the Ringmaster, the "146" did NOT do an orbit during the cavalcade! A 90 degree turn diving slice into Freshwater Bay maybe, but not an orbit!

[gaunty]

It was indeed a great day, a spectacle for the punters and everybody got home safely for the hangar party.

Pity we have to wait for another 100 years :)

[Torres]

Capn Bloggs

Ah, yes, you are correct. The Wright bothers used sophisticated flight control called "wing warping".

Richard Pearce used a far more primitive method; two flight control devices attached to the wings, which I believe would now be called "ailerons". :ok:

:}

[kiwiblue]

Quite right Torres... but even more so with a propellor of selectable pitch too! (Nope, not constant speed, selectable fine/coarse)

And that historic flight took place in mid-Canterbury in New Zealand!

A replica or Richard's aircraft is hanging in the main entrance of the MOTAT Museum in Auckland... an intriguing display, certainly when contrasted with the Wright brothers offerings

[Torres]

"Working virtually alone, Pearse designed and built his light-bodied plane with rigid wings, ailerons, flaps and rudder, all of which were "movable from one control column by the pilot," said Geoff Rodliffe, a historian who wrote a book about Pearse."

Now, if he'd stuck with wing warping, I wonder if he would have been accorded the credit he is due?

And that tricycle undercarriage - that'll never catch on! :E

http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/images/pearse_sherwood_01_s.jpg

[Capn Bloggs]

Torres and Kiwiblue,

I'm afraid I'm a bit out of my depth here. I shall therefore have to bow out! After I mentioned your musings to him, my TAP does assure me that officer Pearse's effort was not considered to be the first fully controlled flight by man. Did he not end up in a hedge on his go??

I'm off to a 100th anniversay Black Tie dinner wi' th' guv at RACWA on Wed so no doubt the issue will come up then!

Cheers!

[kiwiblue]

Cap'n Bloggs:

Good questions. If i remember correctly, Richard was a thinker, designer, engineer and apparently pilot par excellence for his time... but regrettably a poor diarist or historian. Yeah I'm pretty sure he wound up in the sticks a time or two, but I do rem reading the accounts of witnesses at the time claiming sustained & controlled flight did indeed take place. Hard to substantiate though... they're all dead for the just now.
How different history might have been...

[poison_dwarf]

Capn Bloggs

Ah, yes, you are correct. The Wright bothers used sophisticated flight control called "wing warping".

Richard Pearce used a far more primitive method; two flight control devices attached to the wings, which I believe would now be called "ailerons".
The Wrights couldn't even get out of ground effect, had a considerable headwing and a catapult system to launch themselves - first flight indeed...

[Torres]

Capn Bloggs. You are correct, Richard the First did end up in the odd gorse hedge - after his aircraft got airborne of it's own accord and he navigated a specific route of approximately 350 meters.

As poison_dwarf correctly stated, it is debatable whether the Wrights achieved "controlled, powered, free flight" in December 1903. They certainly did not have the hedges Richard had to contend with!

[Wirraway]

Wed "The Australian"

Our early Bird airs doubt over Wrights' stuff
By Steve Creedy, Aviation writer
December 17, 2003

As the world prepares to celebrate today the first centenary of powered flight by the Wright brothers, Australian aviation pioneer Nancy Bird Walton has raised a startling question: what if all of this is wrong?

Mrs Walton, a student of Charles Kingsford-Smith who went on to found the Australian Women's Pilots Association, is among a number of aviators uneasy that Orville and Wilbur Wright may have been pipped at the post more than two years earlier by little-known inventor Gustave Whitehead.

Supporters of Whitehead, who changed his name from Weisskopf when he emigrated from Germany to the US, claim he flew 800m in a plane powered by an acetylene engine on August 14, 1901, in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Whitehead's flight puts him ahead of the man many New Zealanders believe beat the Wrights to the punch by a month, Richard Pearse.

Mrs Walton believes the claim could well be valid.

"Gustave Whitehead worked with Otto Lilienthal and Lilienthal certainly flew gliders very successfully," she said. "And (Whitehead's flight) was written up in the local paper in 1901."

A woodblock print from an original sketch by eyewitness and Bridgeport Sunday Herald sports editor Dick Howell shows a bat-winged plane with two propellers flying above a field.

A report in the Scientific American two months earlier said the machine had two engines - one to run it along the ground until it reached take-off speed, and a second "that actuates the propellers so as to cause the machine to progress through the air to make it rise on its aeroplanes".

A detailed investigation by Connecticut aviation historians in 1964 uncovered enough evidence to get Whitehead recognised as the "Father of Connecticut Aviation".

Whitehead supporters in Bavaria have established a museum in his honour, and a replica of the plane flew successfully in 1998.

His supporters point to an agreement between the Wright Brothers and the Smithsonian as a possible reason their hero has been ignored.

So are we celebrating the wrong anniversary today?

"Well I don't know," Mrs Walton said.

"Do we upset America and the Smithsonian or do we just go on and toe the line?"

===========================================

[Capn Bloggs]

Geez Wiira, you reading the paper at 0130 in the morning??!!

From the Richard Pearse website: "Wild and inaccurate statements have been publicised from time to time concerning Richard Pearse's achievements in the field of aviation. However. no responsible researcher has ever claimed that he achieved fully controlled flight before the Wright brothers, or indeed at any time. To attain fully controlled flight a pilot would have to be able to get his plane into the air, fly it on a chosen course and land it at a predetermined destination.

Obviously Pearse's short "hops" or "flights", whilst they established the fact that he could readily become airborne, did not come within this category, but neither, for that matter, did the first powered flights of the Wright brothers in December 1903. The Wright brothers, however, had the resources necessary to continue their experimentation until they achieved fully controlled flight."

On a related yankism, I note with interest that the Scientific American called the wings "aeroplanes". Maybe it was the Wrights that came to an "agreement" about changing them to "airfoils" too! Those pesky Wrights!