Packed with toe-tapping show tunes and originally brought to the stage by the producing team behind the James Bond movies, the star of the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was undoubtedly always the titular car, and in bringing her to the stage it was never in doubt that flying would be an essential requirement for the show.
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Delstar* Engineering (Delstar was acquired by TAIT in 2013) were at the forefront in facilitating the rise of the 1980s mega-musicals, bringing expertise in hydraulics into the entertainment world, originally gave the car the gift of flight for the show’s original run at the London Palladium in 2002. What started as a cardboard mockup became the mechanics of a car that, when combined with the Stage Technologies’* control system could soar above the stage, tilt, turn, and carry the Potts family and Truly Scrumptious, for decades to come.
*both Delstar and Stage Technologies are now TAIT.
The touring revival of the show necessitated a flying car that did not rely on the particular substage facilities of the original show’s home at the London Palladium, but which could visit regional theatres to bring the spectacle to a audiences all over the country. Delstar provided an electric-powered version of the car mechanism that could be deployed on any stage.
For the new UK tour in 2024 Chitty returned to Haverhill; to TAIT’s new facility there, for a tune-up and safety testing before crisscrossing the UK in a triumphant tour that concluded in May. In addition to the four-axis flying mechanism TAIT provided controls (from our large inventory of reconfigurable assets that are deployed on a multitude of varied productions), operator training and support. The car’s flight sequence is an great example of careful coordination between the technical departments of automation, lighting and set design in furtherance of telling the story on stage.
Many of the West End's most remarkable set pieces and stage magic had their origins in Haverhill, and we're proud to still be bringing the magic to Chitty for a new generation of audiences, alongside our work on global spectaculars.
