15 Jun 2014

Spectrum for 15 June 2014

From Spectrum, 12:05 pm on 15 June 2014

It's one of New Zealand's greatest aviation questions - did farmer and inventor Richard Pearse achieve controlled flight before the Wright Brothers in 1903? While a definitive answer may never be known, there's one man who is determined to see if Pearse's patented aircraft will actually fly. Automotive engineer Ivan Mudrovcich has dedicated nearly a decade to building a reproduction of Richard Pearse's early flying machine. Spectrum's Lisa Thompson pays a visit to Ivan's garage and finds a backyard inventor adding his own chapter to our aviation history.