Britannia monoplane flying over Auckland

Blériot XI monoplane – Britannia – flying over Auckland Exhibition Grounds, 1914.

The plane was piloted by Joseph (Joe) Hammond, a colourful adventurer who worked in the Alaskan goldfields and toured with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show before making his name flying in Australia. Enlisted by the government to fly Britannia, the Fielding-born aviator carried out its only New Zealand flights, in January 1914 at the Auckland Exhibition. Called up for service with the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, Hammond died in a flying accident in the United States in September 1918.