The flight of the Vogel

Wellington aviation pioneer Arthur Waldemar Schaef was pipped at the post on becoming the first person in New Zealand to fly and went to his grave probably wrongly believing he had built New Zealand’s first homemade plane.
Born in Eaglehawk, Victoria, Australia in about 1867 to German immigrant parents Gustav Schaef and Sophia Vogele, Schaef was also a talented professional photographer and he and his wife Lucy (nee Gleeson) owned several rental properties in Wellington.
Schaef was an outspoken character and appeared to have been somewhat of a risk taker. As well as pioneering in the aviation field, he was one of only a handful of people to own a car in Wellington in the early 1900s. He was also twice sued for defamation, both times after accusing unwanted female tenants of being prostitutes, one of which led to his bankruptcy.
In 1909, Schaef started working on his 7.6-metre-long aircraft named New Zealand Vogel. He believed he had every chance to take the honour of being the first person in New Zealand to achieve powered flight.
Schaef’s main competition was a team led by Auckland brothers Vivian and Leo Walsh, who, with the help of three financial backers, in late 1910 imported most of a British Howard Wright biplane in pieces and were working on assembling it.
Schaef, who was self-funded, could only work on the Vogel in the evenings and weekends. With the help of engineer Percy Fisher, the plane was ready for test flights by the end of 1910.
Schaef’s first attempt was made at Hutt Park at the end of that year but the engine lacked the power needed to lift the plane. In January 1911 Schaef moved operations to Lyall Bay Beach – right next door to what would become the location of the present airport. He tried another test flight in mid-January but again failed to get off the ground.
Before Schaef could make his third attempt, Vivian Walsh successfully flew the reassembled biplane, named the Manurewa, on February 5, 1911, at Papakura Racecourse.
Despite his dreams of breaking the New Zealand record shattered, Schaef continued trying to get the Vogel airborne. On March 6 he achieved his best effort, getting five metres off the ground and gliding for 30 metres.
After repeated failures, Schaef turned to trying to become the first pilot in New Zealand to successfully fly a seaplane. The Vogel II was kitted with floats and tested on Evans Bay but despite reaching good speeds, the aircraft failed to lift off and destroyed several propellers in the process.
In March 1914 Schaef’s aviation dreams came to an abrupt end when his plane and shed in Lyall Bay were destroyed by fire.
The following year Walshs pipped Schaef again when they also took the title for New Zealand’s first successful seaplane flight, on Waitemata Harbour on January 1, 1915.
While the Walshs continued their aviation careers, Schaef faded from the limelight.
In 1918 he briefly made news again. He was sentenced to two years’ reformative treatment after he was found guilty of deliberately hiding money in bankruptcy so he would not have to pay his creditors.
Schaef died in Wellington in 1940 and was cremated at Karori Cemetery.
In the 1950s research by aviation pioneer George Bolt showed the competition between Schaef and the Walshs may have been pointless when he found that Richard Pearse, a south Canterbury farmer and inventor, is in fact likely to have been the first person in New Zealand to have built and successfully flown a plane (possibly even before the Wright Brothers in the US).