Kingsford Smith, Sir Charles (1897-1935), Australia’s greatest aviation pioneer, made the first flight across the Pacific Ocean from the United States to Australia. He and a crew of three made the flight in 1928 in a three-engine Fokker aircraft called the Southern Cross. They traveled more than 7,585 miles (12,210 kilometers) in a flying time of 83 hours 11 minutes. Modern jet passenger aircraft now fly from San Francisco to Brisbane in about 12 hours along the route that Kingsford Smith pioneered. His transpacific flights made him a national hero.
Kingsford Smith also made the first nonstop flight across Australia and the first flights across the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. He set several records for air routes between the United Kingdom and Australia.
Charles Edward Kingsford Smith was born in Brisbane, Australia. He studied electrical engineering at Sydney Technical College. He served with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during World War I (1914-1918). Kingsford Smith was later selected for training as a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps.
Kingsford Smith returned to Australia in 1921 and became one of the original pilots of West Australian Airways, an airline that started the first regular airmail service in Australia. In 1927, Kingsford Smith and fellow Australian Charles Ulm completed a flight round Australia in the record time of 10 days 5 hours 15 minutes. For this achievement, the government of New South Wales gave them a financial award. With this money and funds donated by the Returned & Services League and a Melbourne businessman, Sidney Myer, they left by ship for the United States to prepare for the transpacific flight. During the voyage, the ship’s officers taught them navigation.
On May 31, 1928, the Southern Cross took off from Oakland, on San Francisco Bay, and flew to Honolulu. From there, Kingsford Smith and his crew headed into unknown conditions. No aircraft had ever flown across the ocean to Fiji or Australia. There were no radio beacons for navigation and no reports on the speed or direction of the upper winds. After surviving severe storms, the airplane landed in Suva, Fiji. Kingsford Smith had the craft towed to a nearby beach and took off on the last leg of the flight. The Old Bus, as the airplane was nicknamed, landed in Brisbane on June 9.
In 1929, storms forced Kingsford Smith, Ulm, and two other crew members to land the Southern Cross at Coffee Royal, a mudflat in Western Australia. Two pilots died in the search for the aircraft. Public anger at this loss of life caused Kingsford Smith to lose popularity.
In 1929, Kingsford Smith and Ulm set a new record of 12 days 18 hours from Sydney to London. In June 1930, Kingsford Smith completed the first east-west flight across the Atlantic Ocean. In October 1930, he flew solo from the United Kingdom to Darwin, in Australia’s Northern Territory, in 9 days 22 hours 15 minutes.
Kingsford Smith was knighted in 1932. In 1933, he flew solo from Darwin to the United Kingdom in the record time of 7 days 4 hours 44 minutes. In October 1934, with Gordon Taylor as his navigator, he made the first transpacific flight from Australia to the United States.
On Nov. 6, 1935, Kingsford Smith and another pilot, J. Pethybridge, disappeared during an attempt on the United Kingdom-Australia record. Two years later, wreckage of their aircraft was found near the coast of Burma (now Myanmar).
