It was a short, bumpy and occasionally sad road into the aviation history books.

Their plane kept crashing and their money dried up but for just over a year in 1915 three Kalgoorlie engineering students designed and built Western Australia's first powered aircraft from scratch.

Paul Jentsch, Roy Burton and Walter Peters were studying mechanical engineering at the Western Australian School of Mines [WASM] in 1912, when they met and bonded over a shared love of motorcycles.

Curtin University archivist Elizabeth McKenzie said the students' thoughts quickly turned to aviation; which had been capturing imaginations across the globe after Orville and Wilbur Wright's ground-breaking 12-second flight in 1903.

"Aviation was very much in its infancy around the world; so there were people building planes and experimenting with aviation in the eastern states, but not to any large degree," Mrs McKenzie said

"(This feat) just shows the determination and innovation these lads in Kalgoorlie had at their fingertips."

The students were eventually joined by Jack Geere, a British pilot who had wound up in the Goldfields, who held the distinction of being WA's only licensed pilot at the time.

The aircraft made several flights, until it was mothballed in early 1916 because of cracks in the engine. ( Supplied: State Library of Western Australia )

Test flight finishes with two separate crashes

Tapping sources around the gold mining community for funds, the group eventually grew to 20.

The group approached the British War Office for designs — something the British Government, in the middle of an unprecedented arms trace with Germany, was only too happy to provide.

Building off a modified design drawn up by Jentsch, they unveiled the aircraft's frame on April 26, 1915, to a crowd of 300 people at Kalgoorlie's Town Hall. Almost no one in the crowd had seen an aeroplane before.

A successful 40km flight from Kalgoorlie to Coolgardie followed, where Geere landed the plane on the town's main street to the astonishment of shoppers and pub patrons.

The return flight, in June 1915, did not end so successfully.

"The engine failed and the plane came down on its nose," Mrs McKenzie said.

Amazingly, Geere escaped uninjured with the plane's propeller the only component damaged.

"If that wasn't enough, to have it towed back to Kalgoorlie they had to put it on some kind of wagon," Mrs McKenzie said.

"Unfortunately, the horses who were towing the wagon were spooked by something, and the plane ended up against a telegraph pole."

Panicked passenger another hiccup

The plane next took to the skies in October after a four month rebuild, although the flight ended in similarly bizarre fashion.

Auctioning a flight to a "lady passenger" in a bid to raise funds for the repairs, Geere took off from the Kalgoorlie racecourse with 17-year-old Florence Brown on board.

Flying high above the racecourse, reports of the occasion suggest Miss Brown began to panic after the plane was hit by a strong gust of wind.

"She tried to stand up and get out of the plane [in mid air]," Mrs McKenzie said.

"Jack Geere had to land the plane while holding her down, and steer the plane to a safe landing on the course at the same time."

He managed to do both, but not before crashing the plane into the fence and causing further damage.

The plane was built using a second hand engine out of a monoplane that crashed in New South Wales, while steel sheets and hickory were used to build the frame. ( Supplied: State Library of Western Australia )

Costs, damage eventually grounded plane

The aircraft eventually made it to Perth after further repairs, but it was the beginning of the end for the syndicate.

Increasing costs and decreasing interest from the public drained the group's money, while engine damage eventually forced the plane into mothballs in 1916.

Many of the syndicate members went onto military careers, with Geere and Roy Burton serving as pilots in the Australian Imperial Force.

Walter Peters worked as a gun manufacturer in England, before eventually returning to Perth.

But sadly Paul Jentsch, whose design work effectively kick-started the project, was killed in a car accident after returning to Sydney in 1917.

The plane itself wound up in the WA museum, but does not survive to the present day.

Present-day WASM Director Sam Spearing said he hoped the little-known story would serve as inspiration for his students.

"I think it's amazing," Dr Spearing said.