WINGS OVER CAMBRIDGE
CAMBRIDGE'S CONNECTIONS WITH THE WARTIME AIR FORCE

 

 

 

Mill's Aerial Survey and Transport Company

According to "The History of New Zealand Aviation" by Ross Ewing and Ross Macpherson (Heinemann, 1987) the Mill's Aerial Survey and Transport Company, owned and operated by F. Douglas Mill of Auckland, conducted the first ever civil aerial survey in New Zealand .

Mill apparently used the country's first DH60 Gipsy Moth - ZK-AAB - to conduct "an aerial survey of an area bounded by Edgecombe, Tarawera, Rotorua and Cambridge in May 1929 - the first civil aerial survey photography".

I am very keen to try to track down copies of the Cambridge aerial photos if they still exist. Has anyone got any idea if the negatives still exist, or if prints are kept in any National archive or university?

I have searched Google and also checked Archway on Archives New Zealand's site, with no result. Any clues or suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

Incidentally, Mill was the first man to import the De Havilland Moth aircraft, becoming the agent in 1928. The aircraft type revolutionised flying around the world, especially so in New Zealand where the affordable and dependable type saw service in many aeroclubs that sprang up at that time around NZ. The Moth also saw prewar and wartime service in the NZPAF and RNZAF.

 

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