Flying Bicycle, Wind Festival Birdman Competition

Long teased because of its reputation for strong winds, Wellington decided to make the best of the situation by holding a "Wind Festival". One of the festival events was the Birdman Competition, in which budding flyers were encouraged to build flying machines (so long as they weren't powered), and to fly them off Queens Wharf on the Wellington waterfront. Whose ever machine reached the furtherest would win the competition.

All manner of designs were entered in the competition – including innovative glider variations, people attaching themselves to giant kites, people dressed up as giant birds (hoping that feathers might have something to do with flying abilities), and – as shown here – bicycles launched off the wharf at extreme high speed.