The 1911 Voisin-Bristol monoplane, designed and built by Freres Voisin in France, was all metal construction

Arthur Schaef was a Wellington photographer who had a strong interest in machinery and motion. In 1909 he built a plane called Vogel, which is German for bird. But when he tried to take off the English engine lacked sufficient power.

Schaef’s friend, Percy Fisher, rebuilt the engine and finally, on 5 March 1911 at Lyall Bay, Wellington, New Zealand, Vogel flew.

Evening Post reporter, Charles Marris, was on hand to describe the historic moment:

“Schaef lifted the flier with his tailplane, and with graceful coordinated movement the main planes thrust upward, and the monoplane was afloat, about fifteen feet in the air. With wonderful stability the machine glided forward past the onlookers, who scattered when she rose, to settle down, bird-like, on the base some yards further on…”

Schaef’s flight was more of a long hop of 50 metres.

In 1912 Reinhardt Ausmus built a single-place, open cockpit mid-wing monoplane. A Blériot-influenced copy with an uncovered fuselage powered by a 2-cyl rotary, lacking money for plans or materials, Ausmus resorted to laying out the shape on the floor of a vacant building, then sawed pieces out of discarded barn doors and used broken glass as a plane to shape the wood. Covering was starched muslin bedsheets, seal-coated and varnished. Working nights by the light of an oil lamp. The craft first flew on 10 June 1912, which was Ausmus’ solo flight, as well.