The Star: November 19, 2020

Thursday November 19 2020 The Star
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Sale of ‘spaceship’ house about to lift off
• By Chris Barclay
YOU COULD say interest
has been astronomical or
out of this world, as the sale
process for the last remaining
Futuro ‘spaceship’ house in
Christchurch gets ready for lift
off.
The owner, who wishes
to remain anonymous, has
fielded inquiries from Mexico,
Germany, the UK, United
States and domestically, while
the listing on Trade Me had
generated 95,854 views by
Tuesday afternoon.
He plans to consider offers
of more than $300,000 for
the Finnish-designed and
HIGH-FLYER: Kea Aerospace chief executive Mark Rocket says
the Kea Atmos will cruise at 65,000ft (20km).
Solar-powered aircraft
to reach new heights
• By Logan Church
A 32-METRE wide unmanned
aircraft is being built by a
Christchurch company – which
says it is the largest aircraft of its
type ever built in the Southern
Hemisphere.
Kea Aerospace said the aircraft
would be powered by hundreds
of solar cells and three electric
motors, which would collect
enough energy from the sun
Christchurch-constructed
residential oddity, a valuation
based on the fact a Futuro was
sold to Tasmania’s Museum
of New and Old Art (MONA)
in Hobart three years ago for
$260,000.
each day to enable it to fly for
months.
Chief executive Mark Rocket
said the “Kea Atmos” would
fly at 65,000ft (20km) in the
stratosphere, an altitude twice
as high as commercial passenger
jets.
The aircraft would be used to
capture data for businesses and
organisations across the world.
Rocket said it is currently
prohibitively expensive to
The sale deadline is set for
December 5.
This Futuro has been in
storage for more than a decade
after the owner inherited the
quirky accommodation - which
was popular briefly during
get regularly updated, highresolution
data that covered
large areas.
He said the Kea Atmos would
fly 20 times closer to the Earth
than satellites, which would
enable its camera to acquire
a much higher image quality,
without the expense of operating
in space.
There was currently a “
large data intelligence gap” that
could not be met by satellites,
the 1970s - from his stepgrandmother.
She had lived in
the then Bexley-based house
from 1995 to 2005.
One of 12 Futuro houses built
in the city, the owner thought
it could accommodate a family
of four, though it might better
serve as an extension to an
existing home, or perhaps an
Air B&B.
“I hadn’t been interested in
selling it, it’s just been personal
circumstances . . . the amount
of work I’ve got on at the
moment I just feel it’s time
that it probably finds a new
home with somebody who can
celebrate its awesomeness,” the
owner said.
manned aircraft or drones, he
said. “Only a small percentage
of New Zealand’s land and
waterways are aerially surveyed
each year.”
The company will build and
flight-test “multiple prototypes”
in 2021, build the first full-scale
Kea Atmos in 2022, and launch
the aerial imaging service in
New Zealand and Australia in
2023.
– NZ Herald
NEWS 3
in brief
Rapist loses bid to have
conviction quashed
A Christchurch Uber driver
who raped a passenger has
failed in his
bid to have
his conviction
quashed.
Moses Ravanes
was found
guilty by a
jury of raping
an intoxicated
woman
passenger in
July last year.
Moses
Ravanes
He was sentenced to six years
and six months in jail. He tried
to appeal that conviction citing
issues with how the trial judge
handled the case. The Court of
Appeal has dismissed the claim.
Ravanes argued the sex was
consensual. Now he had been
jailed, his family would have to
return to the Philippines.
•Tinder rapist, pages 8, 9 & 10
Man killed when
crushed by car
A 52-year-old man was killed
when the motor vehicle he
was working on toppled and
crushed him in Rolleston on
Friday afternoon. The man,
whose name has not yet been
released, died at the scene, a
private property on Springston
Rolleston Rd. “He was crushed
by the vehicle, the death has
been referred to the coroner,”
Senior Sergeant Dean Harker
said. The Lincoln fire service
and St John also attended the
incident.
73 years since the
Ballantynes’ fire
Yesterday marked the 73rd
anniversary of the Ballantynes’
fire. The central city department
store blaze remains the
deadliest fire in New Zealand
history, claiming the lives of 41
people. At least 680 were in the
department store at the time
of the fire – 430 staff and 250
customers. The bodies of those
who were killed could not be
identified. One more person,
Violet Cody, died later in
hospital with her unborn child.
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