Otago Aero Club
First in New Zealand
Founded on January 21st, 1927, the Otago Aero Club was the first such organisation in New Zealand. It emerged at a moment when aviation in the country was still uncertain, under-resourced, and largely theoretical. From the outset, the Club was driven less by spectacle than by intent: to secure a place for Otago in the coming air age, and to do so through preparation, persistence, and public engagement.
The Club’s early years were marked by ambition tested against reality. Long before aircraft were available, members organised, studied overseas models, lobbied government, raised funds, and searched for land -laying foundations before there was anything tangible to fly. When aviation finally arrived in force, it did so at a site the Club had already prepared: Taieri became not just a training field, but Dunedin’s gateway to the sky, and a focal point for flying across the wider province.
This section traces that story as it unfolds. It brings together moments large and small: policy battles and pageants, first services and famous visitors, training flights, public joyrides, and the steady work of turning enthusiasm into capability. What follows is not just a record of aircraft and events, but of a community that chose to meet the future head-on, and in doing so, helped shape New Zealand’s aviation history from the far south.
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A Bird Without Wings
In the mid-1920s, aviation in New Zealand was still more promise than reality. When the Government signalled in 1927 that it intended to support private aero clubs—by supplying training aircraft and subsidising qualified pilots—Otago’s aviation enthusiasts didn’t wait to be invited.
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The 1931 Air Pageant
On the 21st February 1931, Otago Aero Club hosted the grandly titled “Official South Island Air Pageant and Inaugural Meeting of Otago Aero Club” at what was then called Otago Air Port, but would later become Taieri Airfield.
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First Services
From October 1930, Taieri stopped being “the club’s field” and began to look like Otago’s front door to the future. The hangars were up, the runway was taking shape, and Flying Officer E. G. Olson had arrived to begin the real work: training pilots, taking locals aloft, and proving—flight by flight—that Dunedin could be part of the new air age.
