These three images need to stay together -- theyre part of the same event: the first flight of a two-seater de Havilland Moth over Auckland, 11 March 1928. F Douglas Mill was a Remuera motorist and aviator who had been touring and flying in England and Europe up to early 1928. An Eagle survey camera was fitted to the plane while in Europe, and Mill had it conveyed to NZ for his Air Survey and Transport company. The first Moth flew in February, 1925. To-day these machines are being produced at the rate of four a week, and orders cannot he overtaken until next April. The cost of a completely equipped Moth two-seater in England is £730—-little more than the price of a good motor-car. A Moth seaplane costs £1150. (Star, 8 February 1928) Mill imported his Moth on board the Mataroa, which arrived at Auckland 24 February 1928. Mill partly assembled the plane, and for a week or so before its first flight here, it was on display at Milne & Choyce. The plane was then removed yesterday from the city to a field on the Tamaki Heights, where it was finally assembled and tested, and later flown on a prolonged test flight over Auckland City and environs. Though the machine was towed from the city to the field in the early morning, its location was .quickly discovered by Aucklanders, who appeared anxious to renew their acquaintance with an aeroplane, for since the closing of the flying school at Kohimarama, soon after the war, aeroplanes have been noticeably absent from Auckland. During the day the Moth was eagerly examined by hundreds of young and old. One boy was heard to observe philosophically, Well, Id sooner ride my old bicycle, because you dont fall so far. Through the courtesy of Mr. Mill, a New Zealand Herald representative was allowed to accompany him on his first flight, which lasted for an hour and a-half ... The Moth engine is surprisingly quiet. Conversation, even without the head telephones, is easily carried on. Moreover, cattle browsing in paddocks below, are noticed to boredly gaze, unalarmed, at the machine as it rushes above them ... Turning homeward, with the sun at the back, the magnificent beauty of Auckland, its harbour and suburbs, is vividly realised. In five minutes the Moth is hovering over the Tamaki Heights, the ground wind indicator fish shows the way in. The baby plane comes to rest, and when the engine is switched off, the machine seems to give a huge sigh—a contented sigh of having done its duty. Its wings are folded back against the fuselage. One. man picks up the tail and wheels it into shelter. The bloke who wrote that piece for the NZ Herald (check out the full version in Papers Past) is pictured (to the right) beside Mill in the first image. Refs: FDM-0896-P, FDM-0897-P & FDM-0898-P, F Douglas Mill collection, Auckland Libraries.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 10:25:40 +0000
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