Is it an urban legend? Or a story with wings?
Film-maker Wayne Johnson has taken on one of New Zealand's greatest mysteries in his documentary Will It Fly?, which premieres in Dunedin next week.
Richard William Pearse was a part-time South Canterbury inventor who many believe beat the Wright brothers into the air and was robbed of his due glory. It is speculated Pearse flew and landed a powered heavier-than-air machine in Temuka on March 31, 1903, more than six months before the Wright brothers achieved flight at Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903.
''This story is, without a doubt, one of New Zealand's greatest aviation mysteries,'' Will It Fly? film-maker Wayne Johnson says.
''This is a story that should be known by all New Zealanders. Pearse was a pioneer in the early world of aeronautics and, sadly, never really got the full credit that he so justly deserved.
''We should be celebrating a man of genius who did make a major contribution to the early aeronautical world of invention but, because of isolation, of location, from the rest of the world, his work was never fully realised and valued for what it was,'' he said.
''His thinking on aircraft design and construction in that early 1900s in rural South Canterbury was revolutionary and right up there with international standards and thinking of that time. His engine designs were remarkable for being very lightweight and for their power-to-weight ratio. His early tricycle-styled undercarriage airframe and mono-wing construction was also very forward-thinking.
''The overall concepts of his designs were right up there alongside other recognised international aeronautical inventors in the world all trying to solve the mystery and problems of controlled power flight.''
In February, 2008, Mr Johnson discovered retired West Auckland engineer Ivan Mudrovcich was building a working model of the Pearse aircraft and started the 119-minute feature documentary.
''All the essential ingredients were there for a great story, bar the two most important factors. There was no guaranteed outcome as to whether the plane would fly on its completion and no real time frame that the job would be finished by,'' he said.
''But, I did not want to find myself looking back knowing I had missed this great opportunity to do this and then finding, if I didn't do it, that the aircraft flew. I would have kicked myself for the rest of my living days.''
''That I survived changed my life forever and it was, without a doubt, the worst years of my career, until the late '90s,'' he recalled.
''None us of should have survived that night, while returning back to Gisborne in terrible weather conditions. The following months of investigation with the aftermath of that crash and its impact on Joe's family and friends were felt for many years afterwards. It was a tragic loss of a talented young man's life.''
He says he is unsure whether Pearse beat the Wrights into the air.
''It doesn't matter what I believe. But, something definitely happened with Pearse and his aircraft when he was testing and trying to get into the air. There were so many eyewitness accounts from people saying they saw Pearse airborne at some point and then crashing on to the top of a gorse hedge. There are other accounts of seeing the plane sitting on the gorse hedge after that test flight.
''But, the date or dates will always be the subject of debate and there are many possible theories by some people. I personally don't think that those eyewitness accounts of the Pearse flying attempts can be completely discounted. I just hope that maybe more information might still be out there that is yet to be discovered.''
Witnesses' statements at the time attested that Pearse sustained a height of about a metre in the air for about 30m on the March 1903 attempt down Main Waitohi Rd, adjacent to his Temuka farm, before he crashed on top of a gorse hedge.
However, no documentation or photographs of the achievement exist and Pearse did not court publicity or posterity and would receive no public credit for his work in his lifetime.
He moved to Milton in Otago in about 1911, but abandoned his flying experiments because of the hilly country. He moved back to Christchurch in the 1920s, where he began working on a personal flying car, but became reclusive and paranoid that foreign spies would steal his work and was committed to Sunnyside Mental Hospital in Christchurch in 1951, where he died two years later.
Most of his designs and paperwork are believed to have been destroyed at that time.
Whether fact or fiction, Pearse's achievement is celebrated in a line of tiles on the Lake Wanaka promenade, which commemorate world and New Zealand historic events.
The 1903 tile says that the first powered flight in history occurred in New Zealand, but generously adds at the bottom that the Wright brothers also achieved flight later that year. The documentary will still have an act to come after its screening.
''Ivan will be testing the aircraft in September or October to see what it is capable of and, if the results look good and we get the green light, we will have a shot at trying to get it into the air,'' Mr Johnson said.
''Will it fly? We don't know. But, then again, it just might.''
The film
Will It Fly? premieres at Rialto Cinema in Dunedin on August 1.
