Charles Kingsford Smith | |
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.jpg) Kingsford Smith in 1932 | |
| Born | (1897-02-09)9 February 1897 |
| Died | 8 November 1935(1935-11-08) (aged 38) |
| Cause of death | Crashed in the sea offBurma |
| Other names | Smithy |
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| Awards | |
| Aviation career | |
| Full name | Charles Edward Kingsford Smith |
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Sir Charles Edward Kingsford SmithMC AFC (9 February 1897 – 8 November 1935), nicknamedSmithy,[1] was an Australian aviation pioneer. He piloted the firsttranspacific flight and the first flight between Australia and New Zealand.
Kingsford Smith was born inBrisbane. He grew up inSydney, leaving school at the age of 16 and becoming an engineering apprentice. He joined the Australian Army in 1915 and was a motorcycledespatch rider on theGallipoli campaign. He later transferred to theRoyal Flying Corps and was awarded theMilitary Cross in 1917 after being shot down. After the war's end, Kingsford Smith worked as abarnstormer in England and the United States before returning to Australia in 1921. He subsequently joinedWest Australian Airways as one of the country's first commercial pilots.
In 1928, Kingsford Smith completed the first transpacific flight, a three-leg journey from California to Brisbane via Hawaii and Fiji. He and his co-pilotCharles Ulm became celebrities, together with crew membersJames Warner andHarry Lyon. In the same year he and Ulm completed the first non-stop flight across Australia fromMelbourne toPerth and the first non-stop flight from Australia to New Zealand. They subsequently establishedAustralian National Airways, but the airline and Kingsford Smith's other business ventures failed to achieve commercial success. He continued to participate inair races and to attempt other aviation feats.
In 1935, Kingsford Smith and his co-pilot Tommy Pethybridge disappeared over theAndaman Sea while attempting to break the Australia–England speed record. He was fêted as a national hero during theGreat Depression and received numerous honours during his lifetime. After his deathSydney's primary airport was named in his memory and he was featured on theAustralian twenty-dollar note for several decades.
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Charles Edward Kingsford Smith was born on 9 February 1897 at Riverview Terrace,Hamilton inBrisbane,Colony of Queensland, the son of William Charles Smith and his wife Catherine Mary (née Kingsford, daughter ofRichard Ash Kingsford, a Member of theQueensland Legislative Assembly and mayor in bothBrisbane andCairns municipal councils). His birth was officially registered and announced in the newspapers under the surname Smith, which his family used at that time.[2][3] The earliest use of the surname Kingsford Smith appears to be by his older brother Richard Harold Kingsford Smith, who used the name at least informally from 1901, although he married inNew South Wales under the surname Smith in 1903.[4][5]
In 1903, his parents moved to Canada where they adopted the surname Kingsford Smith. They returned to Sydney in 1907.[6]
Kingsford Smith first attended school in Vancouver, Canada. From 1909 to 1911, he was enrolled atSt Andrew's Cathedral School, Sydney, where he was a chorister in the school's cathedral choir,[7]: 39–40, 48 and then atSydney Technical High School, before becoming an engineering apprentice with theColonial Sugar Refining Company at 16.[6]
On 2 January 1907, Smith was swept out to sea by a strongundertow at Bondi Beach and nearly drowned. He was pulled ashore by lifeguards and revived by a nurse who happened to be around.[8]
Kingsford Smith married Thelma Eileen Hope Corboy in 1923.[6] They divorced in 1929. He married Mary Powell in December 1930.[6]
Shortly after his second marriage he joined theNew Guard,[6] a radical monarchist, anti-communist, and fascist-inspired organisation.[9]
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In 1915, he enlisted for duty in the1st AIF (Australian Army) and served atGallipoli. Initially, he performed duty as a motorcycle dispatch rider, before transferring to theRoyal Flying Corps, earning his pilot's wings in 1917.[6]
In August 1917, while serving withNo. 23 Squadron, Kingsford Smith was shot down and received injuries[10] which requiredamputation of two toes.[11] He was awarded theMilitary Cross for his gallantry in battle.[6] As his recovery was predicted to be lengthy, Kingsford Smith was permitted to take leave in Australia where he visited his parents. Returning to England, Kingsford Smith was assigned to instructor duties and promoted toCaptain.[citation needed]
On 1 April 1918, along with other members of the Royal Flying Corps, Kingsford Smith was transferred to the newly establishedRoyal Air Force. On being demobilised in England, in early 1919, he joined Tasmanian Cyril Maddocks, to form Kingsford Smith, Maddocks Aeros Ltd, flying a joy-riding service mainly in the North of England, during the summer of 1919, initially using surplusDH.6 trainers, then surplusB.E.2s.[12] Later Kingsford Smith worked as abarnstormer in the United States before returning to Australia in 1921.[13]
Applying for a commercial pilot's licence on 2 June 1921, he gave his name as "Charles Edward Kingsford-Smith".[14]
TheCowra Free Press told how Kingsford Smith flew under theLachlan road bridge atCowra, New South Wales, with local motoring identity[15] Ken Richards. It went on to recount how Kingsford Smith was preparing to also fly under the nearby railway bridge, but was warned by Richards of telegraph wires just in time to prevent a catastrophe. Richards, they added, was a mate of Kingsford Smith, and had flown with him several times in France. In this version of events, the feat was accomplished "just after the Armistice"[16] (11 November 1918), but may have been in July 1921, when Kingsford Smith was hosting "joy flights" there, in an aircraft owned by the Diggers' Cooperative Aviation Company.[17] Later accounts have embellished the story.[18]
He became one of Australia's first airline pilots when he was chosen byNorman Brearley to fly for the newly formedWest Australian Airways,[6] and piloted theirBristol Type 28 Coupe Tourers plane (G-AUDF) that made bi-weekly mail drops to the astronomers during the 1922 Solar Eclipse expedition atWallal, Western Australia.[19] Around this time he began to plan his record-breaking flight across the Pacific.[20]
In June 1927, Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm circumnavigated the Australian continent in ten days and five hours, beating the previous record by 12 days, in a Bristol Tourer plane.[21]
In parallel with Kingsford Smith’s record-setting flight, pilotKeith Anderson and mechanic Bob Hitchcock undertook a separate round-Australia journey in a Bristol Tourer, departing Brisbane on 25 June 1927, and taking 14 days.[22]
In 1928, Kingsford Smith andCharles Ulm arrived in the United States and began to search for an aircraft. Famed Australian polar explorer SirHubert Wilkins sold them aFokker F.VII/3m monoplane, which they named theSouthern Cross.[23]
At 8:54 a.m. on 31 May 1928,[23] Kingsford Smith and his 4-man crew leftOakland, California, to attempt the first trans-Pacific flight to Australia. The flight was in three stages. The first, from Oakland toWheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii,[24] was 3,870 kilometres (2,400 mi), taking an uneventful 27 hours 25 minutes (87.54 mph). They took off fromBarking Sands onMana,Kauai, since the runway at Wheeler was not long enough. They headed forSuva, Fiji, 5,077 kilometres (3,155 mi) away, taking 34 hours 30 minutes (91.45 mph). This was the most demanding portion of the journey, as they flew through a massive lightning storm near the equator.[25] The third leg was the shortest, 2,709 kilometres (1,683 mi) in 20 hours (84.15 mph), and crossed the Australian coastline nearBallina[26][27][28] before turning north to fly 170 kilometres (110 mi) to Brisbane, where they landed at 10.50 a.m. on 9 June. The total flight distance was approximately 11,566 kilometres (7,187 mi). Kingsford Smith was met by a huge crowd of 26,000 atEagle Farm Airport, and was welcomed as a hero.[29][30][31][32] AustralianaviatorCharles Ulm was the relief pilot. The other crewmen wereAmericansradio operatorJames Warner andnavigator and engineerHarry Lyon.[33]
TheNational Film and Sound Archive of Australia has a film biography of Kingsford Smith, calledAn Airman Remembers,[34] and recordings of Kingsford Smith and Ulm talking about the journey.[35]
A stamp sheet and stamps, featuring the Australian aviators Kingsford Smith and Ulm, were released by Australia Post in 1978, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the flight.[36]
A young New Zealander namedJean Batten attended a dinner in Australia featuring Kingsford Smith after the trans-Pacific flight and told him "I'm going to learn to fly." She later convinced him to take her for a flight in theSouthern Cross and went on to become a record-setting aviator, following his example instead of his advice ("Don't attempt to break men's records – and don't fly at night", he told her in 1928 and remembered wryly later).[37]
After making the first non-stop flight across Australia fromPoint Cook nearMelbourne toPerth in Western Australia in August 1928, Kingsford Smith and Ulm registered themselves as Australian National Airways (see below). They then decided to attempt theTasman Sea crossing to New Zealand not only because it had not yet been done, but also in the hope the Australian Government would grantAustralian National Airways a subsidised contract to carry scheduled mail regularly.[38] The Tasman had remained unflown after the failure of the first attempt in January 1928, when New ZealandersJohn Moncrieff and George Hood hadvanished without a trace.[39]
Kingsford Smith's flight was planned for take off fromRichmond, near Sydney, on Sunday 2 September 1928, with a scheduled landing around 9:00 a.m. on 3 September atWigram Aerodrome, nearChristchurch, the principal city in theSouth Island of New Zealand. This plan drew a storm of protest from New Zealand churchmen about the "sanctity of theSabbath being set at naught."[40]
The mayor of Christchurch supported the churchmen and cabled a protest to Kingsford Smith. As it happened, unfavourable weather developed over the Tasman and the flight was deferred, so it is not known whether or how Kingsford Smith would have heeded the cable.[38]
Accompanied by Ulm, navigatorHarold Arthur Litchfield, and radio operatorThomas H. McWilliams, a New Zealander made available by the New Zealand Government, Kingsford Smith left Richmond in the evening of 10 September, planning to fly overnight to a daylight landing after a flight of about 14 hours. The 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) planned route was only just over half the distance between Hawaii and Fiji. After a stormy flight, at times throughicing conditions, theSouthern Cross made landfall in much improved weather nearCook Strait, the passage between New Zealand's two main islands. At an estimated 241 kilometres (150 mi) out from New Zealand, the crew dropped a wreath in memory of the two New Zealanders who had disappeared during their attempt to cross the Tasman Sea earlier that year.[41]
There was a tremendous welcome in Christchurch, where theSouthern Cross landed at 0922 after a flight of 14 hours and 25 minutes. About 30,000 people made their way to Wigram, including many students from state schools, who were given the day off, and public servants, who were granted leave until 11 a.m.[41] The event was also broadcast live on radio.[42]
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While theNew Zealand Air Force overhauled theSouthern Cross free of charge, Kingsford Smith and Ulm were taken on a triumphant tour of New Zealand, flying inBristol Fighters.[38]
The return to Sydney was made fromBlenheim, a small city at the north of theSouth Island. Hampered by fog, severe weather and a minor navigational error, the flight to Richmond took over 23 hours; on touchdown, the aircraft had enough fuel for only another 10 minutes flying.[38]
Kingsford Smith,Charles Ulm, Harold A. Litchfield (navigator), and Thomas McWilliams (wireless operator) took off in the Southern Cross fromRichmond airfield forWyndham, Western Australia on 30 March 1929, the first leg of an intended flight to London. They lost their way in a rainstorm, ran low on fuel, and around midday, 31 March, radioed that they were putting down some 150 miles (240 km) short of their objective, on an area later dubbed "Coffee Royal" by the aviators.[43]
By 3 April, four or five planes had been deployed in the search for the missing airmen, made difficult with very little information on their whereabouts.[44] These planes only had a cruising range of four hours and found no trace of the missing crew.
A former business partner of Kingsford Smith,Keith Anderson, joined the search for the Southern Cross. On 7 April, Anderson and partner Hitchcock took off from Richmond airstrip to conduct their search but never returned. Kingsford Smith and his crew were rescued five days later with all five men still alive, but Anderson and Hitchcock were still missing. Their plane was eventually found on 23 April, with both men long dead.[43]
In partnership with Ulm, Kingsford Smith establishedAustralian National Airways in 1929. The passenger, mail and freight service commenced operations flying between Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, in January 1930, with five aircraft but closed after crashes in March and November the next year.[45]
After collecting his 'old bus',Southern Cross, from theFokker aircraft company in the Netherlands where it had been overhauled, in June 1930 he achieved an east–west crossing of the Atlantic from Ireland to Newfoundland in31+1⁄2 hours, having taken off fromPortmarnock Beach (The Velvet Strand), just north of Dublin. New York gave him a tumultuous welcome. TheSouthern Cross continued on to Oakland, California, completing a circumnavigation of the world, begun in 1928.[46] In 1930, he competed in an England to Australiaair race, and, flying solo, won the event taking 13 days. He arrived in Sydney on 22 October 1930.[47]
In 1931, he purchased anAvro Avian he named theSouthern Cross Minor, to attempt an Australia-to-England flight. He later sold the aircraft to CaptainW.N. "Bill" Lancaster who vanished on 11 April 1933 over theSahara Desert; Lancaster's remains were not found until 1962. The wreck of theSouthern Cross Minor is now in theQueensland Museum.[48] In the early 1930s, Smith began developing theSouthern Cross automobile as a side project.[49][50]
In 1933,Seven Mile Beach, New South Wales, was used by Kingsford Smith as the runway for the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand.[51]
In 1934, he purchased aLockheed Altair, theLady Southern Cross, with the intention of competing in theMacRobertson Air Race.[52]
Kingsford Smith and co-pilot John Thompson 'Tommy' Pethybridge were flying theLady Southern Cross overnight from Allahabad (modernPrayagraj), India, toSingapore, as part of their attempt to break the England-Australia speed record held byC. W. A. Scott andTom Campbell Black, when theydisappeared over theAndaman Sea in the early hours of 8 November 1935. AviatorJimmy Melrose claimed to have seen theLady Southern Cross fighting a storm 150 miles (240 km) from shore and 200 feet (61 m) over the sea with fire coming from its exhaust.[53] Despite a search for 74 hours over theBay of Bengal by one person, British pilot Eric Stanley Greenwood,OBE, their bodies were never recovered.[52]
Kingsford Smith was survived by his wife, Mary, Lady Kingsford Smith, and their three-year-old son Charles Jnr. Kingsford Smith's autobiography,My Flying Life, was published posthumously in 1937 and became a best-seller.[54]
Eighteen months after the disappearance, Burmese fishermen found an undercarriage leg and wheel, with its tyre still inflated, which had been washed ashore atAye Island in theGulf of Martaban, 3 km (2 mi) off the southeast coastline of Burma, some 137 km (85 mi) south ofMottama (formerly known as Martaban).Lockheed confirmed the undercarriage leg to be from theLady Southern Cross.[55] Botanists who examined the weeds clinging to the undercarriage leg estimated that the aircraft lies not far from the island at a depth of approximately 15 fathoms (90 ft; 27 m).[56] The undercarriage leg is now on public display at thePowerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia.[57]
In 2009, filmmaker and explorer Damien Lay stated he was certain he had found theLady Southern Cross.[58] The location of the claimed find was widely misreported as "in the Bay of Bengal". However, the 2009 search was in fact at the same location where the landing gear had been found in 1937, at Aye Island in theAndaman Sea.[59]
Following The Joint Australian Myanmar Lady Southern Cross Search Expedition II (LSCSEII) in 2009, Lay conducted a total of ten further expeditions to Myanmar to recover wreckage from the site. In 2011, Lay claimed to have found the wreckage, but that claim has been widely disputed, and no evidence confirming the claim has been forthcoming. The location of the site, approximately 1.8 miles off the coast of Myanmar, has never been publicly released.[60]
Lay has worked closely with both the Kingsford Smith and Pethybridge families since 2005. The privately funded project was supported by the government and people of Myanmar.[61] In December 2017 Lay was still searching for parts of theLady Southern Cross.[62] In 2025, he publishedOf Air and Men, an account of the disappearance and his search.[63]
In 1930, Kingsford Smith was the inaugural recipient of theSegrave Trophy, awarded for "Outstanding Skill, Courage and Initiative on Land, Water [or] in the Air".[64]
Kingsford Smith was knighted in the1932 King's Birthday Honours List as aKnight Bachelor.[65] He received the accolade on 3 June 1932 fromHis ExcellencySir Isaac Isaacs, theGovernor-General of Australia, for services to aviation and later was appointed honoraryAir Commodore of theRoyal Australian Air Force.[66]
In 1986, Kingsford Smith was inducted into theInternational Air & Space Hall of Fame at theSan Diego Air & Space Museum.[67]
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The major airport of Sydney, located in the suburb ofMascot, was namedKingsford Smith International Airport in his honour.[68] The federal electorate surrounding the airport is named theDivision of Kingsford Smith, and includes the suburb ofKingsford.[69]
His most famous aircraft, theSouthern Cross, is now preserved and displayed in a purpose-built memorial to Kingsford Smith near the International Terminal atBrisbane Airport.[70] Kingsford Smith sold the plane to the Australian Government in 1935 for £3000 so it could be put on permanent display for the public.[71][72] The plane was carefully stored for many years before the current memorial was built.
Kingsford Smith Drive in Brisbane passes through the suburb of his birth,Hamilton.[73] Another Kingsford Smith Drive, which is located in theCanberra district ofBelconnen, intersects with Southern Cross Drive.[74]
Opened in 2009, Kingsford Smith School in the Canberra suburb ofHolt was named after the famous aviator,[75] as wasSir Charles Kingsford-Smith Elementary School inVancouver, British Columbia, Canada.[76]
He was pictured on the Australian $20 paper note (in circulation from 1966 until 1994, when the $20polymer note was introduced to replace it), to honour his contribution to aviation and his accomplishments during his life.[77] He was also depicted on theAustralian one-dollar coin of 1997, the centenary of his birth.[78]
Albert Park inSuva, where he landed on the trans-Pacific flight, now contains the Kingsford Smith Pavilion.[79][80]
A memorial stands atSeven Mile Beach in New South Wales commemorating the first commercial flight to New Zealand.[81]
Qantas named its sixthAirbus A380 (VH-OQF) after Kingsford Smith.[82]
KLM named one of itsBoeing 747s (PH-BUM) after Kingsford Smith.[citation needed]
A trans-Enckepropeller moonlet, an inferred minor body, ofSaturn is named after him.[83]
Australian aviation enthusiast Austin Byrne was part of the large crowd at Sydney's Mascot Aerodrome in June 1928 to welcome theSouthern Cross and its crew following their successful trans-Pacific flight. Witnessing this event inspired Byrne to make a scale model of theSouthern Cross to give to Kingsford Smith. After the aviator's disappearance, Byrne continued to expand and enhance his tribute with paintings, photographs, documents, and artworks he created, designed or commissioned. Between 1930 and his death in 1993, Byrne devoted his life to creating and touring hisSouthern Cross Memorial.[84]
An aircraft similar to theSouthern Cross, theBird of Paradise, had made the first flight over (though not across) the Pacific, fromCalifornia toHawaii for theUnited States Army Air Corps, in 1927.[95]
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