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The flight of the Manurewa
Bruce Ringer
In the early morning of 9 February 1911 Vivian Walsh took off from a field in Takanini at the controls of the biplane Manurewa. He rose to a height of about 20 feet and flew for more than 300 yards. This was the first observed successful aeroplane flight in New Zealand.
The flight
On 31 January 1911, Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward took time out of a busy day on the campaign trail to stop at the Glenora Park racecourse in Takanini, north of Papakura. He was there by invitation to christen an aeroplane being assembled by brothers Leo and Vivian Walsh. The chosen name was Manurewa, meaning "flying bird".[1]
This name was evidently auspicious, for on Thursday 9 February, as reported in the New Zealand Herald, the Manurewa made its first successful flight: "A successful flight by an Auckland resident on a machine planned and built in Auckland eventuated yesterday at Papakura ... confident that the machine was capable of flying, the enterprising airmen made preparations for a flight yesterday morning. Long before the inhabitants of the district were about Mr. Walsh and his party had the machine set out in a suitable open space. It was thoroughly inspected, and Mr. V. Walsh, a brother of Mr. Leo Walsh, mounted the seat. A few minutes and the machine was slowly proceeding along the ground preparatory to rising. Then a shout from the spectators indicated that the flight had commenced. Mr. Walsh rose over 20ft from the ground, the distance covered was some 300 or 400 yards, the machine reaching the ground well under the aeronaut's control ..."[2]
The story rapidly spread through the country, for instance, in the Poverty Bay Herald: "A successful aeroplane flight by an Auckland resident on a machine planned and built in Auckland eventuated yesterday at Papakura (states the Auckland Herald [sic] of Friday) ... Mr Leo Walsh, who, with several assistants, was the first to complete the construction of an aeroplane, has crowned his efforts with success ..." And in the Weekly Graphic: "A successful aeroplane flight took place at Papakura last week on Mr. Leo Walsh's recently constructed machine ..."[3]
Walsh Brothers plane at Glenora Park, Takanini, February 1911. (Courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library, reference no. MNZ-2066-1/4-F. Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.)
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