Ross Macpherson Smith

Ross Smith (around 1919)

Sir Ross Macpherson Smith KBE , MC with clasp , DFC with two clasps , AFC (born December 4, 1892 in Semaphore , South Australia in Australia , † April 13, 1922 in Weybridge in England ) was a fighter pilot in World War I and later an Australian Aviation pioneer . He and his brother Keith Macpherson Smith flew successfully for the first time in a race from England to Australia in less than 30 days in 1919 . For this, the brothers were ennobled and the team received a high cash prize offered by the Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes .

Ross Smith is considered Australia's first great aviation pioneer and the most highly decorated pilot of the Australian Imperial Force .

Early life

His father Andrew Bell Smith immigrated from Scotland to Western Australia and settled as manager of the Mutooroo cattle station, where he married Jessie, a daughter of another Scottish settler. The sons Keith and Ross went to Queen's School in Adelaide and then to Warriston School, Moffat in Scotland for two years. When he returned to Australia, Ross joined the Australian Mounted Cadets . He was selected as a representative of South Australia in 1910 for a trip to England and the United States . On his return he went to the Adelaide Rifles and before World War I he worked in an Adelaide department store.

First World War

Ross Smith (left) with the Bristol F. 2B Fighter in Palestine in February 1918

In August 1914 he enlisted in the volunteer army, the Australian Imperial Force . He became a sergeant on October 1st . On October 22nd, he went to Gallipoli , where he landed with his regiment on May 13th, 1915. There he was promoted on August 11th and made second lieutenant on September 5th . He was wounded and came to England in October, where he was made a lieutenant on March 1st . Three weeks later he went back to Egypt to his previous regiment and there he took part in the Battle of Romani on August 4, 1916. In July 1917 went to the Australian Flying Corps , where he was trained as a pilot.

As a fighter pilot, he recorded eleven aerial victories, for which he was awarded. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross three times, a medal for pilots that was awarded three times in only three cases during the First World War. He was also awarded the Military Cross twice; after five victories, he was in the flier language as a flying ace called. In addition to the Battle of Gallipoli , the highly decorated pilot was involved in the war on Sinai and Palestine and, as mentioned, in the Battle of Romani.

After the First World War

Ross Smith (left) in 1921 with his brother Keith

The Vickers Vimy G-EAOU, which was used for the Australia flight (1919)

On November 12, 1919, Ross Smith started with his brother Keith as co-pilot and two mechanics from Hounslow near London in England in a Vickers Vimy with two engines of 360 horsepower each and a wingspan of about 21 meters to Darwin in Australia , where he was on 10 December arrived. This flight took place in the form of a race in which six participants or teams took part, two of whom reached the finish and two were fatally injured. The later polar pilot Hubert Wilkins also remained on the route, albeit uninjured . The entire flight route was divided into four stations: from London via Cairo , Calcutta , Singapore and Darwin. There were more than 20 stopovers on the route.

Ross Smith knew parts of the flight route, the conditions and the weather conditions, as he had flown some of them beforehand. At that time he made pioneer flights from Calcutta to Timor and also from Cairo to Calcutta. The flight mostly took place with a view of land, the most difficult and risky part of the flight route was the last section of the flight over the open sea, over the Arafura Sea , with no sight of landmarks after Darwin, Australia.

Since this flight took less than 28 days with a flight time of 135 hours (5½ days), he, his brother Keith, Bennett and Shiers received a joint award of £ 10,000 from the Australian Government. At the same time he was accepted as Knight Commander in the Order of the British Empire .

Ross Smith and Bennett died in a Vickers Viking plane crash after taking off from Brooklands , England on April 13, 1922 while preparing for a world tour. They were brought to Australia and buried in Adelaide's North Road Cemetery on June 15 . Ross Smith is buried next to his brother Keith, father and mother. His widow was around 30 years old at the time.

Naming and honors

The airfield on which the aviation pioneers landed in 1919 is named Ross Smith Avenue after Ross Smith . The plane they flew on is in the museum in Adelaide. In Adelaide, a life-size bronze sculpture by Ross Smith stands on a stone plinth.

In Northfield , South Australia , the Ross Smith Secondary School bears his name.

The entire crew of the successful flight from England to Australia was beaten in Adelaide at West Beach Airport as a relief in a yellow sandstone and shows Captain Sir Ross Smith, Lieutenant Sir Keith Smith, Lieutenant JM Bennett and Lieutenant WH Shiers.

Web links

• The First to Australia on airwaysmuseum.com (PDF; 3.1 MB)
• Australian Dictionary of Biography
• Biography of the "Digger History" ( Memento from January 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
• Pilot of the Australian Flying Corps ( Memento from May 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Australian War Memorial . Retrieved June 12, 2010
2. ^ Peter Burness: The 1919 Air Race , Australian War Memorial, accessed January 24, 2013
3. ↑ ^{a b} Image of the team on airwaysmuseum.com . Retrieved June 12, 2010
4. ↑ Ross Smith on Australian Dictionary of Biography . Retrieved June 11, 2010
5. ^ Image of the aircraft on display, the Vickers Vimy, in the Aircraft Museum in Adelaide . Retrieved June 12, 2010
6. ^ Ross Smith Secondary School in Northfield ( Memento of the original from October 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved June 12, 2010