Michael Fowler: East Coast aviation had colourful past

Art Deco era styled aeroplanes East Coast Airways' Tui and Huia at the Embankment Aerodrome in 1935, with Napier Aero Club members and their glider. Photo / Richard Waugh Collection

The Hawke's Bay & East Coast Aero Club had kept the Hastings to Gisborne air route going since 1933, but that was about to change when a new company called East Coast Airways Limited was formed in June 1934.

Gisborne-based East Coast Airways wanted to raise £15,000 ($1.9 million) to purchase two British twin-engine de Havilland DH-84 Dragons aircraft to service the route between Gisborne's Darton Field and Napier's Embankment Aerodrome.

These "modern British safety aircraft" would service the route with an hour's flying time at a fare of £2 ($250) one-way and £3 15s ($472) return. Up to 10 passengers could be carried – but seldom were, due to the inadequate landing fields.

An advertisement described the aircraft, reporting that "the Iraq air force have eight for breaking unruly tribes".

Gisborne, being somewhat isolated from the rest of New Zealand, as no rail link reached them until 1942, was seven hours by road from Napier. The town was keen to become the most accessible in New Zealand by air and as another advertisement stated, "We want Gisborne on the map."

The share offer generated much interest, and one subscriber was Wing Commander Stuart Grant-Dalton of Havelock North, previously director of air services for the government. He would become chairman of East Coast Airways.

The controlling shareholder was the Union Steam Ship Company. Most individual shareholders, however, were from Gisborne.

By August 1934, £11,000 ($1.4 million) of the shares were subscribed, and East Coast Airways, in trying to mop up the remaining £4000 ($500,000) of "this first class investment" told readers to "ask Jean Batten or your banker".

Later that month enough funds had been raised to place an order for the two Dragons, as soon as they had been issued with a commercial air licence. This was granted in November 1934, for a service between Gisborne and either Napier or Hastings.

Interestingly, when arranging insurance for the planes, the British aviation insurance group looked favourably on twin-engine models, such as the DH Dragons, whereas single-engine aeroplanes had to justify a safety record.

Applications for three positions were advertised in January 1935: a chief pilot at a salary of £11 per week ($1320), assistant pilot at £10 per week ($1200) and a ground engineer at £6 per week ($732).

Squadron Leader Trevor (Tiny) White, who was once flying instructor at the Hawke's Bay & East Coast Aero Club, was appointed chief pilot and flying officer. Ron Kirkup, instructor at the Christchurch Aero Club, was the new assistant pilot, and the ground engineer was Mr L Mangham from Palmerston North.

Over 30 applications were received for the pilot positions from England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with 40 received for ground engineer.

East Coast Airways' application for a licence to operate the air service stated its southern terminus could be at either Hastings or Napier, but with a preference for the Embankment Aerodrome at Napier, which is what occurred.

The Dragons arrived in Auckland to be assembled in March 1935. They could cruise at about 115mph (185km/h) with a top speed of 130mph (209km/h).

Testing of the planes began in Auckland on March 25, and the first test flight of ZK-ADS went well. However, a load test on April 1, where the Dragon ZK-ADR was loaded up with sandbags to simulate passengers, resulted in a crash after it could not clear some power lines.

The plane hit a ditch and the undercarriage collapsed and both propellers were broken. This mishap would not interfere with the opening of the service as they could use one plane while the other was repaired and tested in Auckland.

The two Dragons were given names: ZK-ADS would be Tui and ZK-ADR, Huia.
Napier's Embankment Aerodrome was chosen as the Hawke's Bay terminus for the Gisborne flights, and without the efforts of the Napier Aero Club members who had created the aerodrome, the service would have gone to Hastings.

The opening of the new air service took place on April 15, 1935, first in Gisborne's Darton Aerodrome and then the official party were flown to Napier's Embankment Aerodrome for a ceremony there.

This air service was the first multi-engine scheduled air service in New Zealand and the first licensed operator.

* Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a contract researcher and commercial business writer of Hawke's Bay history.
Follow him on facebook.com/michaelfowlerhistory