Edwardian Era Replica Flying Machines of New Zealand - A Plethora of 1903 Pearse Replicas

Over quite a few years now I have been posting the histories of homebuilt and sport aircraft of New Zealand that have been registered here.  I reckon it has been quite exhaustive, but the other day I found one that I had missed.

I had not remembered that one of the several 1903 Pearse replicas had been registered as the creators attempted to coax it into the air!  And I am not talking about Ivan Mudrovich's machine.  So I did a bit of digging and came up with the following:

This replica is on display at MOTAT.  I understand that it was built by Geoff Rodliffe of Auckland for a 1970s NZBC film.  It is fitted with a replica of Richard Pearse's engine and propellor.

And this replica was built by members of the South Canterbury Aviation Heritage Centre for the centenary of Richard Paearse's possible (uncontrolled?) flight in 2003.  It also has a replica of Pearse's engine and propellor.  I am not sure where this replica is now, but it does not look like the one that is outside the South Canterbury Aviation Heritage Centre (below).

Photo taken at Timaru on 6/9/14.

And this and the photos below (by unknown photographers from the internet) are of ZK-RWP (c/n RWP-1) which was registered on 31/3/03 to the Museum of Transport and Technology, Auckland,  I understand that it was built by Geoff Rodliffe and Don Fleming of Auckland and it was fitted with a microlight engine and a wooden propellor.  It was transported to Waitohi in South Canterbury where Richard Pearse made his first attempts to fly in 1903.  The above photo is of Jack Melhopt and ZK-RWP on a very muddy farm airstrip at Waitohi, where it did not fly.

These two photos show the aircraft at the Richard Pearse Centenary airshow held at the Levels airfield at Timaru, which was held between 29 - 31 March 2003.

It made powered runs as in the above photo, again helmed by Jack Melhopt, but alas it still did not leave terra firma.

I understand that it then made its way to the UK, where the above photo was taken at Old Warden on 29/7/03, by this time it had a replica Richard Pearse engine and propellor..  It was cancelled from the New Zealand register on 28/10/04.