KEY POINTS:
Ossie James, OBE, CNZM, aviation pioneer. Died aged 87.
In the late 1940s, Oswald George (Ossie) James became convinced that eroded East Coast farm country could be improved quickly and easily by dropping fertiliser on to it from aeroplanes.
He bought three Tiger Moths, loaded them up, and
the aerial topdressing industry in New Zealand was in business.
"Our official load of fertiliser was 360lb [163kg], but we operated with 580lb," he said in a Herald interview in 1983. "The Tiger flew like a powered glider with that weight, so we had to go downhill to get anywhere. That's why ag strips are always on top of hills."
When Mr James retired in 1984, his company James Aviation had a staff of 625, a fleet of 120 aircraft and many subsidiary aviation companies.
Among his achievements was introducing the first helicopters into New Zealand agricultural aviation in 1949, converting World War II DC-3s into topdressing planes, and building training aircraft for the Australian, New Zealand and Thai air forces.
But it nearly didn't happen. In 1936, when Mr James went to the Air Force recruiting office in Gisborne, he was told he wasn't smart enough to fly.
"When the war came, if you studied maths you could become a pilot. I hadn't, so they put me in engineering."
He worked on planes in the Pacific theatre during the war, getting his A-grade mechanic's ticket in the process. When he came home, he opened a garage in Tolaga Bay with his brothers Ian and Colin, and learned to fly.
His farming friends had plenty of money but were short of labour after the war, and there was a surplus of wartime-trained pilots and engineers and, best of all, aircraft. Agricultural aviation seemed a logical business choice.
In the early 50s, Mr James moved to Hamilton airport, determined to own or control as many parts of the industry as possible.
Within 10 years James Aviation had taken over 23 companies and was operating 85 aircraft in New Zealand and Australia.
The need for bigger and more economical planes led to a trip around the world, which ended with the discovery of a small aviation company, Fletcher Inc, in the United States.
Mr James bought the company and moved it to Hamilton.
He built 286 of the aircraft and exported some of them to countries as diverse as Venezuela and Iraq.
Fletcher topdressing planes, with their upturned wingtips, became a common sight in New Zealand skies.
In 1973, James Aviation merged two of its companies, Air Parts and Aero Engine Services, into Aerospace Industries to build the CT-4 Airtrainer, an air force training plane.
Thailand, New Zealand and Australia wanted the planes, but pressure from European countries scuttled Denmark's large order for the craft, and production ceased.
Enthusiasm for new ideas was Mr James' driving force.
"Every day's a new day, isn't it, and in aviation the growth of it and the speed of change back then ... being involved was very rewarding.
"Your vision is only as big as your hangar door. And one of the reasons James Aviation was able to grow was that we had a very large hangar door."
The hydrofoil Manu Wai was another James project. It was run as a Waiheke Island ferry from 1964 to 1975, and Mr James bought it to refit and use as a set for movies. A large cost overrun - Mr James later described the enterprise as a monumental folly and a luxury - meant that the hydrofoil didn't go back in the water until 1990, when DB Breweries bought a half share.
Mr James helped to establish the International Fieldays agriculture trade show at Mystery Creek near Hamilton.
Ossie James married Elaine Arthur in 1953. The couple had one son and two daughters.
