Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith

[robbie]

Hi all,

A famous Aussie about whom I had forgotten.

Charles Kingsford Smith has been called the world’s greatest aviator.

His record breaking flights and almost superhuman flying skills are legendary.

Charles Edward kingsford Smith was born in Brisbane in 1897, the youngest of seven children.

WW1 burst over Europe and Charles enlisted on his eighteenth birthday.

After fighting at Gallipoli, and a stint as a motor-bike despatch rider, he was chosen to join Britain’s Flying Corps which urgently needed pilots.

It was 1916 and aeroplanes were new inventions. The planes Smithy learnt to fly were made of fabric, wire and timber.

It was something he loved from the very first moment.

He wrote home to his parents "I have discovered one thing about flying and that is that my future, for whatever it may be worth, is bound up with it."

They say of some aviators, they were born to fly, well Smithy was born to be obsessed by flying. In one of his many flying missions during the war his plane was riddled with bullets. Smithy was shot in the foot and later had three toes amputated. His war days were over. He was presented with the Military Cross by King George and at only 20-years was a war hero.

In 1930, at the age of thirty-two he flew 16 000 kilometres single handedly and won the England to Australia air race.

In 1933, after once again breaking the record for solo flight from England to Australia, he was acclaimed as the world’s greatest airman.

On 6 November 1935, Smithy and Tommy Pethybridge took off from England on what was to be Smithy’s last record breaking attempt.

A day later Smithy’s plane disappeared near Burma. It has never been found.

http://www.abc.net.au/btn/australians/cksmith.htm

Robbie

[Malcolm]

Robbie

His grandson lives just down the road here and his great-grand-daughter went out with my son for a while. He plays a mean rock guitar too ! I will print him a copy of your post to give him when in the pub next.

Aye

Malcolm

[robbie]

Malcolm,

Fancy that.

Small world. Six degrees of separation..

[Guest Biplane pilot]

I'd say that Kingsford-Smith makes the short list of Great Aviators. As for The Greatest? We'd have to decide on a definition.

FWIW, I'd say nominations are open and closed with James Harold Doolittle. Instrument flying, high octane fuel, landmark master's and PhD theses, high-performance pioneer, exceptional test pilot (first outside loop), to say nothing of his military career.

[Guest R Pope]

Yeah, Smithy would make the short list, along with Doolittle, but there's a place for my fave, Lincoln Beachey, the Man Who Owned The Air, as well as many others. You can't single out one without insulting many others.