Charles Kingsford Smith

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kingsford Smith in aviator gear

Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith (born February 9, 1897 in the Hamilton district of Brisbane , State of Queensland ; † November 8, 1935 , lost in the Andaman Sea ), also known as Charles Kingsford Smith or Smithy for short , was a famous Australian aviation pioneer .

Smith successfully carried out the first flight across the Pacific Ocean from the USA to Australia in 1928 . He crossed the Australian continent for the first time in a non-stop flight and made the first commercial flight from Australia to New Zealand . Smith and his co-pilot Charles Ulm made a flight on the long east route across the Pacific Ocean from Australia to the USA, and on his flight from Australia to London he set a new flight record.

Smith was missing while on a flight in the Andaman Sea in November 1935 at the age of 38 .

Private life

Charles Edward Kingsford Smith was the fifth of seven children of William Charles Smith, a bank manager, and his wife Catherine Mary Kingsford. From 1903 to 1907 he lived with his family in Vancouver , Canada. When he returned to Australia, he went to St Andrew's Cathedral School in Sydney . After attending school at Sydney Technical College, he learned electromechanics from 1911 to 1912.

In 1930 he married Mary Powell, with whom he had a son.

In the 1930s he was a member of the fascist Australian organization New Guard .

First World War

In 1913 he got a job, and then he enlisted in the Australian volunteer army, the Australian Imperial Force , where he took part in the Battle of Gallipoli from 1915 . There he was first used as a motorcycle reporter before joining the Australian Flying Corps and completing pilot training. From 1917 he was used as a pilot in France. His plane crashed in August 1917, seriously injuring his left leg. After his recovery he was promoted and used as an instructor. He received the Military Cross .

On April 1, 1918, Smith was taken over by the newly established Royal Air Force ; he was demobilized in early 1919. He then went to Hollywood as a stunt pilot , and in 1921 he returned to Australia, joining West Australian Airways , the first Australian airline to set up a civil route from Geraldton to Derby .

Flights

Charles Kingsford Smith made numerous maiden flights and is cited not only as the most successful aviation pioneer in the southern hemisphere to cross the Pacific in both directions, but also as the first person to circumnavigate the world in an airplane. The individual flights across the Pacific from the USA to Australia, from England to Australia and from Ireland to the USA are added together.

Trans-Pacific flight

The Southern Cross on an Australian Air Force airfield near Canberra in 1943.

Kingsford Smith and his co-pilot Charles Ulm planned to fly over the Pacific from the USA to Australia. Both then went to the USA and looked for a suitable aircraft for their project. They chose a three-engine Fokker F.VIIb-3m of new engines they Southern Cross , after the Southern Cross named. The Southern Cross, nicknamed by Kingsford Smith my old bus , weighed a total of 6,840 kg at the start, including the crew of four. The aircraft had a wingspan of 23 meters and was flying at a speed of 150 km / h (93 MPH). Communication was possible via three radio transmitters and two receivers; there were four compasses, also sea distress signals, water and food for a week on board.

On May 31, 1928, Kingsford Smith took off from Oakland , California for the first successful flight over the Pacific. The flight took place in three stages, from Oakland to Honolulu (27 hours and 25 minutes) and from Honolulu to Kauai (55 minutes) over a distance of 3862 km (2,400 miles), then to Suva (34 hours and 30 minutes) and Naselai Beach (55 minutes) for 4988 km (3100 miles). This was the most difficult and longest section of the flight, as they also got caught in a severe storm near the equator . The last flight segment from Naselai Beach to Brisbane in Australia, 3057 km (1900 miles), required 20 hours. There they landed on June 9th after a total flight (7400 miles). The total distance covered was 11,585 kilometers.

When he arrived at Brisbane airport, thousands of enthusiasts were waiting, and when they flew to Sydney the next day, around 300,000 people received him to celebrate the successful flight and him as a hero. His flight crew consisted of his co-pilot Charles Ulm and two other pilots from the USA, James Warner and Harry Lyon, who was a circular reporter, navigator and engineer.

Trans Tasman Sea flight

Map of the Tasman Sea with Australia and New Zealand

In August 1928, Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm and Frederick Harold Stewart , an Australian politician, founded an airline, Australian National Airways, because they, and above all the Australian government, intended to set up a commercial route across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand for mail and others To transport goods.

When they landed the Southern Cross in Christchurch after a flight of over 14 hours 25 minutes, they greeted 30,000 enthusiastic people; the event was also broadcast on the radio. With the Southern Cross in need of an overhaul, the New Zealand Air Force flew Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm on a tour of New Zealand, where they received a warm welcome everywhere. They started the return flight from Blenheim in New Zealand, which is in the north of South Island . Because of the bad weather, the return flight took 23 hours, and when they landed in Richmond , Australia, they only had fuel for a ten minute flight.

Coffee Royal Flight

On March 31, 1929 on the flight from Sydney to England with the Southern Cross , Kingsford Smith had to make an emergency landing at the mouth of the Glenelg River in the Kimberleys . The crew, believed to be lost, was found on the first aircraft and pilot rescue expedition in Australia, but a rescue plane, the Westland Widgeon Kookaburra , crashed and two pilots died. When the rescue company found the flight crew and the Southern Cross aircraft , they were waiting for their rescuers to drink so-called Royal Coffee , sweetened mocha with cognac , which is heated and lit in a ladle and then poured into preheated glasses. The Australian public resented Kingsford Smith, and he was unable to restore his reputation in its entirety until the end of his life.

More flights

From August 8 to 9, 1928, Smith flew from Melbourne to Perth in his first non-stop intercontinental flight in Australia over (2,000 miles) with the Fokker Southern Cross in 23 hours and 25 minutes. Charles Ulm, Harold Litchfield and Tom McWilliams were in his flight crew.

He flew from Ireland to Newfoundland from June 23 to 24, 1930 ; this was the first successful North Atlantic flight in this direction over a distance of (1900 miles) in 31 hours and 30 minutes.

In 1930 Kingsford Smith took part in air racing events as a solo flier in England and Australia, all of which he won.

He flew alone from London in England to Darwin in Australia from October 9 to 19, 1930, without any other crew members . This was a record flight in 9 days and 22 hours via London - Rome - Athens - Aleppo - Bushire - Karachi - Allahabad - Rangoon - Singapore - Surabaya - Atamboea (Timor) - Darwin - Cloncurry - Brisbane - Sydney.

In 1931 he developed the Southern Cross Minor aircraft to fly from Australia to England. He sold the aircraft to the aviation pioneer Bill Lancaster , who went missing in the Sahara on April 11, 1933 . The wreck of the Southern Cross Minor is now in the Queensland Museum.

He wasn't just creative as an aviation pioneer. In 1931, Smith began developing Australian automobiles with what he called the Southern Cross Car Australian . In June 1933 the first four Southern Cross Cars were produced. A total of about ten copies are said to have been made by his death.

In 1933, with the participation of Smith, the first commercial air race took place, which started from Seven Mile Beach in New South Wales to New Zealand.

In 1934 he flew with a Lockheed Altair , the so-called Lady Southern Cross , from Australia to the USA and completed the long eastern crossing of the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

Lost

Kingsford Smith and his then co-pilot Tommy Pethybridge flew their plane, the Lady Southern Cross , from Allahabad in India to Singapore on early November 8, 1935 , to break the flight record on the England-Australia route. They were lost on this flight.

It wasn't until about 18 months later that fishermen from Burma found parts of the aircraft off Aye Island in the Gulf of Martaban in the Andaman Sea, 137 km south of Mottama . The part of the wreck that was found is a gear linkage with a wheel. There are several versions of the crash site, it has not yet been found, but attempts have been made to find the site again and again. Filmmaker Damien Lay says he found the wreck one hundred percent near Aye Island.

Awards and honors

Sydney Airport, formerly Mascot Airport
The Kingsford Smith Memorial in Brisbane which houses the aircraft, the Southern Cross

Kingsford Smith received for its operations in World War Two military awards of the United Kingdom, the Military Cross and the Air Force Cross .

In 1932 he was ennobled and made an honorary Air Commodore of the Royal Australian Air Force .

Kingsford Smith was a member of the Masonic League .

The main airport of Sydney, which is also the largest airport in Australia, was named Kingsford Smith International Airport in his honor. The constituency around the airport is called Division of Kingsford Smith and includes the suburb of Kingsford .

One of his planes, the Southern Cross, is on display at Brisbane Airport. It is the only existing flight copy of the Fokker F.VII type. with three engines.

Kingsford Smith Memorial Park is located in New South Wales near Katoomba . Kingsford Smith Drive in Brisbane and Canberra bear his name, Southern Cross Drive in Brisbane is a reminder of its airplanes and Kingsford Smith School in Holt, a suburb of Canberra, uses his name.

Postage stamp for Kingford Smith

He was portrayed on the $ 20 note that was in circulation from 1966 to 1994 and on a one-dollar coin from 1997 for his 100th birthday . In his honor, a stamp was issued in Australia about his worldwide flights in 1931. The Albert Park in Suva, where he landed during his trans-Pacific flight, has a Kingsford Smith Pavilion . A memorial is located on Seven Mile Beach and is still a reminder today of the establishment of the first commercial airline from Australia to New Zealand.

On May 2, 2003, an asteroid in the main inner belt was named after him: (11778) Kingsford Smith .

Two aircraft, an Airbus A380 from the Australian airline Qantas and a Boeing 747 from the Dutch airline KLM , were named after Kingsford Smith.

Films, television, literature

  • Kingsford Smith was the author of The Old Bus , which was Smith's nickname for his Southern Cross plane , which he used in 1932. With his co-pilot Ulm he wrote another book Southern Cross' Trans-Pacific Flight in 1928. His autobiography was published in 1937 after his death.
  • In 1946, the Australian film director Ken G. Hall made a film Smithy , which was the nickname of Charles Kingsford Smith. The main role as Kingford Smith was played by Ron Randell .
  • Australian television aired a television series A Thousand Skies in 1985 with John Walton as Kingsford Smith.
  • Ian Mackersey brought the book Smithy. The Life of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith (1897-1935). out in 1998.
  • When the writer Peter Fitzsimon presented his book Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Those Magnificent Men at the Sydney Opera House in June 2009 , Prime Minister Kevin Rudd praised the life and pioneering work of Charles Kingsford Smith in his eulogy . The son Charles von Kingsford Smith and the son John of his co-pilot Ulm were present at the memorial service.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulm, Charles Thomas Philippe (1898–1934) , on Australian Dictionary of Biography, accessed December 17, 2014
  2. ↑ Information on acepilots.com . Retrieved June 13, 2010
  3. ↑ abc.net.au ( Memento of the original dated June 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : New Guard: ABC Broadcating , September 13, 2004, in English, accessed June 8, 2011  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.abc.net.au
  4. ↑ Frederick Howard: Kingsford Smith, Sir Charles Edward (1897-1935) on Australian Dictionary of Biography. Online edition . Retrieved June 13, 2010
  5. ↑ a b c Charles Kingsford Smith Australian Pilot of the 'Southern Cross', First Across the Pacific on the acepilots.com website . Retrieved June 13, 2010
  6. ↑ a b c d e Ian Mackersey: The Life of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith ( 1897-1935 ). ISBN 0-7515-2656-8 . Information on ianmackersey.com , accessed June 13, 2010
  7. ^ Charles Kingsford Smith and the first trans-Pacific flight, 1928 on the website of the National Museum of Australia. Retrieved June 13, 2010
  8. ^ A b c P. Davis: Charles Kingsford Smith: Smithy, the World's Greatest Aviator, Summit Books 1977, ISBN 0-7271-0144-7
  9. ^ Information on the National Bibliotec Australia website . Retrieved June 13, 2010
  10. ↑ Maisie McKenzie: The Road to Mowanjum. Angus & Robertson 1969
  11. ↑ Terra Gwynn-Jones: On a Wing and a Prayer. University of Queensland Press 1989. ISBN 0-7022-2193-7
  12. ↑ Information on The Pioneers - Chubbie Miller on the website ctie.monash.edu.au . Retrieved June 13, 2010
  13. ↑ A picture and information about the Southern Cross Car on auspostalhistory.com . Retrieved June 14, 2010
  14. ↑ VH-USB "Lady Southern Cross" (Part 4) on the adastron.com website . Retrieved June 13, 2010
  15. ↑ Illustration of the chassis linkage and wheel in the Powerhouse Museum , accessed on September 9, 2011
  16. ↑ Burma-bound on Smithy hunt by Emily Dunn and Garry Maddox on February 9, 2009 . Retrieved June 13, 2010
  17. ↑ Has Charles Kingsford Smith's plane been found? on dailytelegraph.com.au . Retrieved June 14, 2010
  18. ↑ The secret we should all be let in on ; Newspaper article by Gerard Henderson; published in The Age ; published on September 3, 2002. Homepage: The Age (accessed on February 23, 2017)
  19. ^ Illustration of the Kingford Smith memorial in Kingsford Smith Memorial Park near Katoomba. Retrieved June 16, 2010
  20. ↑ Qantas A380s to Honor Our Aviation Pioneers. Qantas Corporate Communication, November 16, 2008, accessed December 28, 2010 .
  21. ↑ Ian Mackersey: The Life of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith (1897 - 1935). Time Warner Books, London 1998, ISBN 0-316-64308-4 .
  22. ↑ Rudd honors Kingsford Smith and Ulm published in the Sydney Morning Herold on June 11, 2009 . Retrieved June 15, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Kingsford Smith, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kingsford Smith, Charles Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian military pilot in World War I and aviation pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamilton , Brisbane , Queensland
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1935
Place of death Andaman Sea