WITH THE OLD "JAP."

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 25, 6 March 1914, Page 3

WITH THE OLD "JAP."

Schaef and fisher in WELLINGTON.

PIONEER BUILDERS OF 'PLANES. BLERIOT MODELS THAT FLEW. In the beginning was Schaef (a photographer!) with a Bleriot model, at Wellington. The marvel is that this indomitable fellow builded a machine in the "let ups'' of a busy life with the camera. He betrayed no enthusiasm over a wed-ding-group all joy and fond relations, but to see him in the workshop of an evening tying-up piano : wire stays, finishing up the chassis, or shaving a propellor out of three layers of boards, was to see an inventor who could |vork Himself into incurable insomnia—but hp could create a machine of ,his own. He has accomplished the task of constructing several machines without incurring a chronic sleeplessness, and how he fared, will be outlined (only outlined) here.

Schaef has not yet wakened to find himself famous. ■ He at no time slaved through midnight hours tp the purrinjr of the incandescent blow-pipe and the snoring of the plane, with the idea of dazzling the world with a swift and unexpected brilliancy. He was mad to a craft of his own handiwork run out of a shed and dragged up into the blue by a propeller whose blur spoke of 1600 revolutions a minute. In the end, aftes, endles labour, after y uncountable reverses and set-backs —wicked set-backs heart-breakingly recurrent —this man Schaef, the pioneer in New Zealand aviation, nt> matter what , others may claim, flew a hundred yards on the Ly§,il ; Bay beach one sombre evening, and had he not in his nervousness cut off the control, .he might have been • aloft to this day.

. The Old liovei - > : • This review is not going to be encumbered J d&£&s; Schaef's was the' first New Zealancf machine to leave the groujid for an : appreciable distancethat is indisputable. • ,He has builded • another monoplane • feinc,e —a sleek,: wasp-like Bleriot mode}, which looks a '' flier, every inch—but you can wager a million that it was the machine, with a : husky engine (he is sure to deny the '' husky'') inside her, and a very much •unwanted wind tilting her ejeasperatiiigly—it is that machine he goes /.back to in his quiet moments.

A Husky Engine. • This will be : no catalogue of, dried facts. But one thing must be said early; and that .is that „ this photo-grapher-monoplane builder had not seen a' living machine. He mastered the Bleriot principles from the flying magazines, and set to work With What material he could command. Experimenting as he went along, Schaef evolved a cbnjplete machine. . His en- ' gine 'was' 1 had done useful in. an automobile or something, apct was'made more energetic by a clever mechanic, one Fisher. Fisher will receive deserved notice in his place. Frolics at Lyall Bay.

One morning the full fledged monoplane —it must be emphasised that it was the pioneer 'plane of the Dominion —was towed out to the expansive beach "at Lyall Bay, and housed in a shed. One bright afternoon, three or four of us slippqd out to the bay to assist at the first flight. ' A photographer hovered in the background. But pushing her out between the sand hills to the beach the wheel-stays crumpled. No chance that night. Another evening saw the little party again on the beach, using bad language, quite justifiable under the circumstances. There was a momentary thrill as Schaef climbed intp the pilot's seat. We hung on to the tail grimly, until the engine fired, spluttering like a Maxim. The machine broke away, almost floating along the sand. While we waited to see it rise, a puff heeled it over and badly damaged a wind tip.

The First Flight in Now Zealand. Then one evening the Scliaftf moiiopljane, Actually despite her pilot (who can build a machine better than he can fly one), ran along, floated—the wheels off the ground —and rose clear 'until it was some 15ft up. . Schaef was go amazed that he Jiad gone nigh on & hundred yards or so —a genuine flight, and "snapped" for Press purposes—bqfore he forgot to shut off the pow;er. Down he came with a bump. He dismounted, his long hair glistening with oil, his face spattered. "I hardly knew I was up,' he gasped delightedly. That is the story of the first flight in the Dominion.

Aero to Waterplane. Since then, Sehaef has gone further, faring ill sometimes, faring better other times. He got back some of the good gold spent on the experiments by giving awe-inspiring displays of a flying propeller (the machine was safely tethered) to lamb culturists and cocksfoot experts at various showgrounds. He has br.ilded another monoplane, a slim, beautiful thing, for which some enterprising enthusiasts in Wellington imported a high-powered, high-priced Anaani engine. Then, before he could find a pilot daring enough to try out the new contraption, he was persuaded, to have the 'plane shod with floats—for hydro-aeroplane pu.rposes. It was pointed or.t to him that falling into water did not hurt so much as a deep tumble into gorse or on to a macadamised road. So' far as this writer is p.ware, the waterplane act was a sorry failure. In the first place, the Anzani was not powerful enough for the job, and—well, Sehaef would have been better advised to have left this branch of the bi\sincs3 till later days. He should revert to the monoplane stunt, and get s, genuine pilot 'o show off the paces of ,the machine. Thi3 commentator has no doubt but 'that, with someone like Stone at the wheel, this 'plane will fly till she is pulled down. When he was i>n

his travels with the machine Schaef visited Christchurch, but the engine (the olcl Jap) damaged a cylinder, and he had to return.

Triumph of Brains. Associated very closely with Schaef's early adventures in aeroplane construction was a young engineer, Fisher by name. For his years he is as shrewd a mechanician as could be found. He

is born to the work. What he did to the ancient Jap engine would take too long in the telling. For months he worked tirelessly along with Schaef, spending himself in the endeavour to have a local 'plane sailing over Wellington. One dull day, when things went askew, he decided to break away and translate his own ideas into a real monoplane. The building part came easy to him. The winged things completed, he had to fall back on the aforesaid .Tap, which his own skill had so well rehabilitated. He chose a spot miles away from the Wellington "busters ' '—he went to Featherston —in which to test the machine. For pilot he dug up, an enterprising youth named* White, who proved an exhilarating success for a time—at least long enough to demonstrate the Fisher monoplane's capabilities. "Several straight-away flights were made, one of which is depicted on this page. It was a triumph for New Zealand brains and New Zealand enterprise. It demonstrated quite convincingly that here in this little blotch on the South Pacific there were men who, in the face of every conceivable difficulty and disability, and, lacking the loast acquaintance with* 'places of any sort, could design iind construct machines on Bleriot lines—and machined cipable of flight. When the full tide of aviation sets towards the Dominion—as it is bound to do

sooner or later—it is to be hoped that the self-sacrificing work of the pioneers will not be overlooked.

"There were Others . . We take no heed here of freak models that from time to time strange minds in Wellington displayed to the public gazei. They don't count beside the handicraft of Sehaef and Fisher.

One Vershuren (a Swiss, 'tis said) landed in* Wellington a couple of years ago with a Bleriot out of which a wellknown American aviator had been tumbled to his death. With Vershuren was somebody yclept Walsh as "manager" or something. The former, an accredited pilot with a certificate, refused to leave the ground without a solid guarantee: he "was not going to risk his neck in the Wellington winds." But there were .quarrels, and recriminations sufficient to frighten away a band of enthusiasts who wasted good money in an attempt to get an exhibition. Vershuren slipped back to 'Frisco early. ; This article (as I advised before) is intended only as a general outline of aviation pioneering, which began in Wellington a few short years since. THE BLOQUE.