Pither, 1910, Monoplane Replica.
Photo’s by Steve Green
Story by Croydon Aircraft Company Ltd
Pither 1910 Monoplane.
Originally Developed, built and flight tested by: H. J. (Bert) Pither, Southland, New Zealand, formerly of Canterbury.
Pither drew on his background as a professional racing cyclist and cycle manufacturer to build the structure of his plane.
He was known in his day for an interest in the manufacture of “anything weird and mechanical”, Pither had shown technical and athletic abilities since his Canterbury childhood.
In today’s terms Pither’s Bleriot style monoplane is a microlight, with the wingspan of a Piper Tomahawk.
There is uncertainty around his claim to flight because there was no contemporary eye witness account.
THE REPLICA
Colin Smith of the Croydon Aircraft Company has built a replica of Pither’s aircraft to put the 1910 design to a practical test. Working drawings were able to be produced from usefully detailed contemporary newspaper reports and photographs, although no one knows what adjustments Pither later made at his beach test site.
Bill Sutherland of Waikaka built a look alike Pither V4 engine, and the engine propeller combination was set to the power output specified by Pither (250lb or 113kg) to test whether that was sufficient to put the craft in the air. The only design concessions were added for safety reasons and made no difference to performance. These, plus the heavier engine, made the replica 160lbs (77kg) heavier than Pither’s craft.
There may be a similarity between Pither’s engine and a early JAP engine.
PITHER’S BEACH TEST SITE
The beach where Pither tested his plane is accessed from Bay Road. In 1910 it was known as “Riverton Beach” because this was where the coach road between Invercargill and Riverton ran along the beach. Today it would be referred to as just the Western end of Oreti Beach.
Here Pither set up camp for a week in mid winter 1910, finding a gap in the wintry weather one afternoon to fully test his plane.
THE PITHER FAMILY
Born in Reigate, Surrey, in 1871, Pither was the second eldest of 12 children of John and Lydia Pither, who emigrated to Canterbury on the Crusader in 1875.
Pither and his Australian wife Sarah Hahir had no children, but there are many descendants in other lines.
The Plane
Specifications
Fuselage: All metal, steel tubing, box girder principle.
Wings: Also steel tube, wooden ribs, fabric covered, span 28 feet (8.5m).
Area: 160 sq. ft (14.9 sq.m).
Total steel tube: About 65m.
Weight: 500lbs (230kg) excluding the pilot.
Length: 26 feet (7.9m).
Propeller: 6ft 6in diameter (1.9m) based on marine design; steel hub, aluminium sheath.
Engine: Four cylinder V4 capable of 40 horsepower.
Thrust capability: 250 pound (113kg).
Control in air: Pedal operated tail rudder.
Lateral stability: Achieved by warping rear edges of wings, controlled by steering wheel.
Pitch control: Lever operated elevators.
Undercarriage: Motorcycle or bicycle wheels with fitted spring shock absorbers.
Herbert John Pither
Known in his day for an interest in the manufacture of “anything weird and mechanical”, Pither had shown technical and athletic abilities since his Canterbury childhood.
His Bleriot-style monoplane has features that indicate he was aware of contemporary international developments and the principles of flight, besides some innovative ideas of his own.
He drew on his background as a professional cyclist and cycle manufacturer to build the structure of his plane from steel cycle tubing, thus tackling one of the problems of his day: how to achieve a plane light enough to be lifted by the engine power then available.
Pither ran a Kelvin Street engineering business in Invercargill about 1906-1910, building petrol driven engines for boats and agricultural machinery. He came south driving a car he built himself in 1902 in Christchurch.
The close resemblance of both Pither’s engine and airframe designs to the contemporary JAP engine and to the English firm’s experimental 1910 plane (now in the Science Museum in London) is a mystery.
The Croydon Project
The project’s major aim was to honour this very inventive man for his engineering achievements in their own terms.
At this point no one can prove Pither flew, unless they can find reliable eyewitnesses who made a contemporary record of the flight (with photos please.) No one authorised to speak for the Croydon Aircraft Company project has made, or will make, such a claim.
But the successful flight of the replica, showing that it is both flyable and controllable, greatly increases the probability that Pither flew, especially when placed alongside Pither’s own description of his experience.
The supposed “Pither” engine currently in MOTAT, Auckland, has detracted from an assessment of Pither’s abilities as an engineer. However it is highly unlikely to be a Pither engine, but rather an engine that included some left over Pither parts from the foundry. It is certainly not the engine in the contemporary photographs of Pither’s plane, nor does it match the quality of his workmanship.
The MOTAT engine was almost certainly built by another Invercargill aviation experimenter, Jimmy Paskell, a contractor and scrap metal merchant. This engine was retrieved from a site in Otatara, close to the Paskell property, and Paskell’s son has described disposing of this engine from his father’s aircraft down a well there. (He also disposed of a metal sheathed propeller of “old fashioned design”, which has not been recovered.)The area was later quarried for gravel, apparently bringing the engine back to the surface.
Pither critics have cited the inadequacies of this engine, discounting the possibility that it could operate for long enough to sustain flight. This may well be so, but is irrelevant to a consideration of Pither’s achievements.
Pither flies
At 7.30am on Saturday 18 February, Croydon Aircraft Company’s Pither replica 1910 monoplane moved for the first time under its own power out onto the Mandeville airfield.
The Croydon team had anticipated lengthy cautious taxiing trials might be necessary, but pilot Jerry Chisum quickly established the craft was stable, and on only the second run, inched it into the air over a distance of about 100 metres.
Take off speed measured from the chase car was 70km.
On successive runs he took the monoplane slightly higher, and satisfied himself it was fully controllable.
Its performance exceeded his expectations, given its minimal tail surfaces, he said. “It wants to fly.”
However there is no historical reason for putting it to any greater test, and no intention of doing so. The replica will become part of the Croydon Aviation Heritage Trust’s future museum collection.
The problem with Pither’s claim to flight
Pither’s claim to have flown on Oreti Beach on 5 July 1910 relies almost entirely on his own description of the experience, as given to journalists.
Information collected much later, and therefore even more problematic, has been read as suggesting at least one more ambitious flight in the Waikiwi area, before Pither left for Melbourne at the end of that year.
Like many technologically inventive minds, Pither may have lacked the business skills and finances to exploit his ideas, and he probably over extended his resources in his investment in the plane.
He is not known to have been involved in any further aviation experimentation, and died in Victoria in 1934 without again laying claim to be the first to fly in New Zealand.
The extent of his achievement is therefore still open to question.
Can you provide more information?
The Croydon team would welcome information on:
Pither’s cycling career in New Zealand or Australia
Unfortunately the club he raced for in Christchurch lost its archives to fire
His early 1902 single-cylinder car
No photo has so far been found
His business activities in Melbourne, Christchurch and Invercargill
His whereabouts in Australia 1911-21
Any surviving Pither marine or agricultural engines, his “Peerless” brand is distinctive.
The Pither family
John and Lydia Pither came from Reigate, Surrey, where both their fathers were substantial businessmen. They emigrated to Canterbury as on the Crusader in 1878, when Bert was seven.
Eventually they had a family of 12, and there are numerous descendants. Family names include Mills, McNichol and Fraser.
An Internet search on the name shows the Pither family continues to produce achievers, especially athletes.
Bert’s brother Laurence became a building contractor in Katoomba, and there are Australian descendants, though no connection has yet been traced to Air Commodore A.G. Pither, RAAF, who was responsible for Australian radar defence during World War 2.
Brothers Len and Laurence were also good cyclists. Someone in the family may have the photo above of Bert on his bike, which was still in existence in the 1950s.
Bert married Sarah Hahir in Melbourne in 1895. They are known to have been in Horsham, a small town just outside Melbourne, in 1921, where Pither died in 1934 and his wife in 1958.
Croydon Aircraft Company Ltd.
Old Mandeville Airfield
Mandeville
No 6 RD
Gore
New Zealand
Telephone: 03-208-9755
Fax: 03-208-4288
Website: www.croydonaircraft.com
Email: croydon.aircraft@esi.co.nz
(c) Copyright: The information contained in these pages is the property of Croydon Aircraft Company Ltd. Mandeville.
