History
Meet the ‘Wizard’ and his giant bird
CHRIS CURRIE flies into SLQ’s collections to tell the story of Brisbane’s first airplane flight.
Early on the afternoon of Saturday, July 6, 1912, the gates of the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds were opened. Over the next few hours, nearly 10,000 people flooded into the grounds to see a special visitor.
American daredevil Arthur Burr ‘Wizard’ Stone had been touring the east coast with an attraction until that time unseen in Australia: a Metz-Bleriot monoplane. Brisbane locals were to see the machine in action for the first time.
The crowd assembled on the main oval. Those who paid an extra shilling could inspect the plane: an elegant (albeit flimsy-looking) machine constructed of wood, fabric and wire some 7.62m long, with wings spanning 8.53m. Powering the plane was a 50-horsepower, 7-cylinder Gnome rotary engine, which could drive the propeller up to 1200 revs per minute.
Helping to maintain the engine was 18-year-old apprentice Bert Hinkler, who had joined Stone a month earlier in Bundaberg and who would later become one of Australia’s most renowned aviators.
Before
At 4pm, the bird-like machine was guided from a nearby tent to the centre of the oval. The propellor was spun and half-a- dozen assistants held the plane down while the engine warmed up. Ten minutes later, the assistants let go and the plane glided quickly across the grass before lifting off into the air.
Stone’s torso sat up high above the plane’s frame, further enhancing the illusion he was riding on the back of a giant bird.
He soared 60m into the clear Brisbane skies, circling the Exhibition Grounds three times to the cheers of the crowd, with each turn increasing the altitude until he was eventually flying at 122m. After successfully flying for 10 minutes, he began his final descent. To the assembled crowd, the descent appeared very steep (“as close to head first as he could have got it”) and indeed the first landing attempt jolted the machine so hard that one wheel broke off. The whole plane bounced back into the air before careening into the turf, spinning a full somersault and breaking spectacularly apart.
To the amazement of spectators, Stone uncovered himself from the wreckage and bowed to the crowd. Save for some cuts to his hands and a bruised hip, he was unharmed.
Despite the dramatic ending, the day was considered a great success.
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