Rare flyer in the skies

A replica of a Southland monoplane that might have lifted off the ground 100 years ago is expected to fly again in July to mark the centenary of the "flight".

The replica of the 1910 Pither Monoplane was built in 2004 by Colin Smith of the Croydon Aircraft Company in Mandeville, near Gore, and friend Bill Sutherland, and has been airborne several times since then. Its owners say that to mark the century, it will fly in a straight line for about 100 metres, just as aviation enthusiast Bert Pither is said to have done 100 years ago.

Smith and Sutherland plan to get it airborne on July 3 or July 4, just short of the 100th anniversary of Pither's flight on July 5, 1910. Pither took the plane to the western end of Oreti Beach, where he claimed to have flown it.