In 1919 the Commonwealth Government of Australia offered a prize of £10,000 for the first flight by Australians in an aircraft of British Empire manufacture from Hounslow or Calshot in England to Australia accomplished within 720 hours (30 days). Of a total of six entries that started the race, the winner was a Vickers Vimy bomber flown by a pair of brothers.
Contestants
A Captain G.C. Matthews as pilot with Sergeant T.D. Kay as mechanic took off on 21 October in a Sopwith. By the 2 December they had got no further than Vienna.
Vickers entered a Vimy bomber, registered G-EAOU, (the registration being whimsically said to stand for "God 'elp all of us"), crewed by Captain Ross Macpherson Smith with his brother Lieutenant Keith Macpherson Smith as co-pilot and mechanics Sergeant W.H. (Wally) Shiers and J.M. (Jim) Bennett.
Their plane left Hounslow at 8am on 12 November 1919. It flew via Lyon, Rome, Cairo, Damascus, Basra, Karachi, Delhi, Calcutta, Akyab, Rangoon racecourse, Singora (Songkhla) (in Siam unscheduled in heavy rain), Singapore, Batana and Surabaya where the aircraft was bogged and had to make use of a temporary airstrip made from bamboo mats, reaching Darwin at 4.10pm on 10 December 1919. The flight distance was estimated as 17,911 kilometers (11,123 mi) and total flying time was 135 hours 55 minutes (131.8kph / 81.9mph). The Smith brothers each received a knighthood for this exploit and the company presented their aircraft to the Australian government. It was placed on display in Adelaide. The prize money was shared between the Smith brothers and the two mechanics.
On 13 November Captain Douglas, MC DCM and Lieutenant J.S.L. Ross took off from Hounslow in their well-equipped Alliance Endeavour. It crashed in an orchard in Surbiton; Ross was killed outright and Douglas died soon after of his injuries.
A team with a Blackburn Kangaroo, Registration G-EAOW, had selected as navigator the Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith. Smith withdrew from the contest, and Captain Hubert Wilkins MC and bar took his place. With Lieutenant V. Rendle, Lieutenant D.R. Williams and Lieutenant G. St. C. Potts, the Blackburn Kangaroo left England on 21 November 1919. Problems were experienced with the engines and the plane was forced down over France. Repairs were made and the flight continued, still with engine problems. Eventually the plane crash-landed in Crete, ending up against the fence of a mental hospital. The crew escaped without injury.
Captain Cedric E. Howell and Lieutenant George Fraser left London in a Martynside A1 aircraft on 5 December. They crashed near Corfu December 9th. Lieutenant Fraser was not found.
The last to depart for the contest, and the only other entry to actually make it to Australia was a de Havilland DH9 G-EAQM under the command of Lieutenant Ray Parer, with co-pilot Lieutenant John C. McIntosh. They departed from London on 8 January 1920 and completed their flight in an epic 206 days later, earning Parer the sobriquet "Battling Ray".
See also
- MacRobertson Air Race
External links
- Sir Ross Macpherson Smith bio with flight details on "Digger History"
- Articles on the flight from "The Age"
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