Replica of Pearse plane set to answer the question

Nearly 110 years on from Canterbury farmer Richard Pearse's attempts at flight, Kelston's Ivan Mudrovcich will be sending a replica Pearse skywards.

Mr Mudrovcich, an automotive engineer, has been painstakingly building the engine and body of Mr Pearse's light aircraft since 2004.

Pearse wrote that he turned his mind to flight in 1904 but proponents have argued that evidence - although not definitive - does exist for flight in March 1903, nine months before the famous Wright brothers became airborne.

Mr Mudrovcich, 75, a lover of speedway engines, said he'd always been interested in the inventor so when former colleagues asked if he'd be interested in the rebuild he jumped at the chance.

The result is a craft that weighs a little more than 362kg, has a wingspan of 13 metres with an engine that sits high up behind a propeller.

A documentary Will it Fly? is being filmed about his efforts, and in the next couple of weeks Mr Mudrovcich, management, also known as his wife, and supporters will take the craft out to Whenuapai to answer that question.

"We haven't flown it yet, we've done tests on it. We were towing it around on a trailer into the wind just getting the lift and that and we broke a wing. It's obviously got lift, it's doing its thing. It was trying to lift the trailer too."

He doesn't mind if it doesn't fly. He's loved the research aspect of the project, heading into archival accounts, building from people's descriptions of the time. He's made history come alive.

"We're just about ready for another go. We won't hammer it so much this time, we want to learn about it."

He has an abiding respect for Pearse.

"He was a tinker. He may not have been educated as an engineer but he was an instinctive engineer."