SPORTPILOT
AUSTRALIAN FLYING LEGENDS
A BRIEF HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA’S MOST NOTABLE AVIATORS Words Daniel McAuley
Australia has experienced a rich aviation history, filled with brave and admirable aviators who’ve pushed the limits of what everyone else thought possible. Here, we pay homage to just some of those aviators in a brief synopsis of their achievements – all through a constant pursuit to advance the capabilities of flight. Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm on land ing after the Pacific Flight, Credit: Mitchell Library, Stat 10 June 1928. e Library of New South Wa les
CHARLES KINGSFORD SMITH & CHARLES ULM Charles Kingsford Smith, also known as Smithy, was an early Australian aviator with a long list of achievements to his name. Smithy’s flying career began in 1917 when he earned his pilot’s wings as a member of the British Royal Flying Corps, having transferred from the Australian Army where he served in Gallipoli as a motorcycle dispatch rider. Upon returning to Australia after the war, Smithy was one of the early pioneer aviators to realise the potential for air transport. He partnered with fellow Australian aviator Charles Ulm to form Australian National Airways and spent several years proving the capabilities of flight
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to the world. Smithy, along with Ulm as co-pilot for many of these flights, made the first trans-Pacific flight from the US to Australia, the first non-stop crossing of the Australian mainland, the first flights between Australia and New Zealand, the first eastward Pacific crossing from Australia to the US, and also set the record at the time of flying from Australia to London in 10.5 days. Unfortunately, Smith perished in a crash while flying from England to Australia, however he left behind a great legacy highlighting the potential for air transport. Charles Ulm disappeared shortly after in 1934 during a test flight from California to Hawaii.
