Plane definitely took flight

Sir, – With reference to the article in the Courier (August 23) regarding the power flight by the Watson Brothers in 1903, on the date in question in July of that year my father Alec Paterson (Eck) and his pal Ernie Bruce were in a horse drawn bus when they encountered the Watson Brothers with a pony pulling a queer contraption taking up the whole width of the road.

Being naturally curious they got off the bus and followed the machine to a farm at East Leys. At the farm they asked the brothers what the machine was and were informed that it was a flying machine and they were going to fly it the next day.

The next day they got up early and went to the farm where the Watson Brothers were wheeling the machine from a shed and tied a restraining rope to a fence. Preston Watson asked my father and his pal if they would assist them in flying the machine by releasing the rope when they started the engine.

What happened next was a bit of an anticlimax as the machine ran away along the ground for quite a distance without taking flight. So after several unsuccessful attempts they gave my father and his pal 6d each for their pains.

The next day they returned to the farm and Preston Watson got into the pilot seat while his brother swung the propeller and my father and his pal released the rope and the plane trundled along without taking flight again.

On the third day James Watson (who was smaller and lighter in stature) got into the pilot seat while Preston swung the propeller.

When the engine was started and the rope released the machine travelled a short distance, lifted and rose to the height of the farm buildings and flew for about 200 yards before the nose dipped and hit the ground, breaking the propeller.

My father was interviewed by a journalist from the Courier and Advertiser at his home in Glasgow Road, Perth, and the story was published in the paper on Saturday February 26, 1966, along with a photograph of my father with an early flying machine.

The interview my father gave and the publication of the same is of considerable length and there are claims and counterclaims.

The flight by the Watson Brothers was definitely in July 1903 as the schools were on holiday and the farmer was exercising a horse for running in the Errol Games the next Wednesday and the Games were always held in July.

This was five months before the Wright Brothers’ historic flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Ronald Paterson. Maple Place, Perth.

When the engine was started and the rope released the machine travelled a short distance, lifted and rose to the height of the farm buildings and flew for about 200 yards before the nose dipped and hit the ground, breaking the propeller