Unsung Kiwi pioneer aviator flies again
07 Jul 2010
The name’s Bert and the scene is Invercargill, New Zealand. The story is of one man’s great vision and ground-breaking invention - and it’s the plot for a feature film. Sound familiar?
But this isn’t about Burt Munro, motorbikes and hit movie The World’s Fastest Indian - instead it’s about little known Kiwi aviator Bert Pither, who successfully flew his home-made monoplane 100 years ago.
Bert Pither’s story is another intriguing episode in New Zealand’s early aviation history.
The story goes that the intrepid inventor took to the skies in a flight above Southland, and just a stone’s throw from where Burt Munro would modify his famous Indian motorbike.
Pither’s unwitnessed flight came just seven years after New Zealand pioneer aviator Richard Pearce had made his 1903 flight nine months ahead of the Wright Brothers.
Unsung aviation feats
While the aviation feats of Pither have been largely unsung, centennial celebrations of his 1910 flight have aroused new interest, attracting oblivious family members as well as an independent film-maker.
Now the remarkable story is being proposed for the big screen with film-makers confirming they are currently seeking funding, and already have some shots in the can for opening and closing sequences.
Film-maker Malcolm Hall says he’s unable to reveal much more about the film proposal but the story has "all the elements - adventure, slightly crazy characters, a bit of scandal and a successful flight."
The fact that Bert Pither had died in obscurity provided extra drama, said Hall.
Pither monoplane
Film crews joined descendants of the Invercargill inventor at Mandeville Airfield near Gore in Southland to recognise Pither’s achievements and celebrate the milestone in New Zealand aviation history.
They watched a replica of Pither’s monoplane, built by the Croydon Aircraft Company and housed at Mandeville, make multiple flights in commemoration.
The replica, which has been built as close as possible to the original, has a four cylinder motor pulling 40 horsepower.
Colin Smith of Croydon Aircraft Company says working drawings were produced from detailed newspaper reports and photographs at the time, though no-one knows what adjustments Pither made later at his beach test-site.
Family members said the centennial celebrations had been emotional as many had grown up on stories of Pither’s achievements but knew he didn’t feature in official historical records.
Great-great-nephew Nigel Pither of Christchurch said young family members doing school projects on "Uncle Bert" had met with disbelief but now they were getting confirmation that the story was true.
Bert Pither’s story
It was at Riverton Beach, now referred to as the western end of Oreti Beach, Invercargill, that Bert Pither apparently achieved lift-off in his self-styled contraption in 1910 - becoming only the second aeroplane in New Zealand history to fly successfully.
Born in Reigate, Surrey in 1871, Bert was the second eldest of 12 children in the Pither family that emigrated to Canterbury, New Zealand in 1875.
The young Bert Pither - who had shown technical and athletic abilities from childhood - built himself a car and headed south to Invercargill in 1902. There, he ran an engineering business from about 1906 - 1910, building petrol driven engines for boats and agricultural machinery.
Pither was renowned for his interest in the manufacture of anything "weird and mechanical".
Innovative ideas
While the structure of Bert Pither’s plane indicates he was aware of developments and the principles of flight, it also features other innovative ideas that were his own.
The inventor apparently drew on his background as a professional racing cyclist and cycle manufacturer to build the structure of his plane, using steel cycle tubing.
Though Pither swore on oath in a Melbourne court that he had flown, there were no witnesses and intrigue still surrounds his story.
Test pilot Jerry Chisum, who flew the replica, said he could understand Pither not wanting to fly his invention more than once.
"I think it was probably exhilarating to him that his contraption flew but it probably scared him quite a bit too," said Chisum.
He said he had huge admiration for Pither’s command of the disciplines of both airframe and engine building.
"He gathered up the technology and built what amounts to a spaceship for his time. He was not only a mechanical genius but a visionary."
More information
The World's Fastest Indian
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