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All About Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's Plane Southern Cross

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's Southern Cross is the plane that was one of the most popular planes during the 1920s. This plane was named after the Southern Cross constellation, which is a popular symbol of the Southern Hemisphere. This plane is mostly famous due to its pilot Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, who was a part of the Australian army during World War I and was an Australian Aviation pilot.

A Sketch of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith with his plane Southern Cross

Apart from him, the plane was also flown by Charles Ulm, Harry Lyon and James Warner. The plane first came to attention when it became popular with the first ever Transpacific flight, which was conducted in 1928. The Southern Cross airplane is a trimotor monoplane that was manufactured by Fokker. The owners of this plane have been The Detroit News and Commonwealth of Australia since 1935.

History of the Southern Cross

This plane initially began its journey at the Detroit News. It first started its flying journey as a Detroiter or in other words, a polar exploration aircraft during the Wilkins Arctic Expedition. Hubert Wilkins, the person after whom the exploration took place in the first place, was responsible for recovering and repairing Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's Plane. This plane had crashed in Alaska in 1926 and then was discovered by the Australian expedition leader.

He decided it would be better for him to sell off the plane, as Fokkers was a large plane and wasn't suitable for the Arctic explorations that he was conducting. Later when he met Charles Ulm and Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, he decided to sell them the airplane without any engines. Kingsford Smith then fitted all the required parts and instruments and planned on using the Southern Cross plane for the first Transpacific flight. To do so, he decided to gather some sponsors and funds from the world endurance records and made two attempts to do so.

Then, unfortunately, the New South Wales government withdrew the sponsorship from the flight, which meant that now Charles Kingsford Smith would run out of money for the plane. This led him to ultimately sell the Southern Cross aeroplane. American Aviator and philanthropist Allan Hancock bought the aircraft and then loaned it back to Charles Ulm and Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. The Melbourne businessman also funded the three Wright whirlwind engines for the plane.

About the Trans-Pacific Flight

The first Transpacific flight took place with the help of this plane, where the crew members completed a journey of 11,670 kilometres i.e. 7,250 miles, in 1928, from mainland USA to Australia. Finally, the plane took off on its journey which would start a new record with the crew that consisted of four crewmen, including Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, and Americans Harry Lyon who was the navigator and James Warner was the radio operator. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's Plane started this journey on 31st May 1928.

The journey had started from Oakland, California, United States of America, and after a while, the plane had to be stopped to rest for a brief period. This rest was in Hawaii, where they also refueled and then they once again set off on their journey, this time to Fiji. The plane flew across the Grand Pacific Hotel, which was located in Suva, a large crowd was also gathered in Fiji to witness a plane land in Albert Park for the first time in history.

The journey to Fiji took 34½ hours of flight across the open seas. Charles Kingsford Smith's Plane landed in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on 9th June. They were warmly greeted by a crowd of 25000 people. The crowd grandly welcomed them at the airport of East Farm. The next day, 10th June, the plane flew to Sydney.

With the help of four transmitters and three receivers, the Southern Cross aircraft was in constant communication via radio with the ships and shore during the flight.

This was also an important moment for radio communication since, during this flight, the first paid commercial messages were sent and received. This created a new world record for the distance of the shortwave radio reception at Bloemfontein, South Africa, the longest way around the world at 12,800 miles. The success of this flight inspired Admiral Byrd to equip his three Antarctic Expedition aircraft with similar equipment as the southern cross plane.

The 1929 Tragedy

After a few successful expeditions on the aircraft, Charles Ulm and Sir Charles Kingsford Smith set out on another flight which was from Sydney, Australia to England, in 1929. As this was going on, the plane suddenly lost all communication, and a search was organized immediately.

After Les Holden had joined the search, representing the Sydney Citizen's Relief Committee, he flew for over 100 hours across 9000 miles, when he spotted the plane. Charles Kingsford Smith's Plane was actually on a mudflat near the Western Australian river, Glenelg. Fortunately, all the crew members were rescued from the sight, but two of the searchers died due to dehydration who was Keith Vincent Anderson and Henry Smith Bobby Hitchcock, when they had to land near an arid region due to complications in their aeroplane.

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's Death

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith also lost his life on his plane, the Southern Cross, while he was flying over Allahabad India, to reach Singapore in 1935. They wanted to break the England-Australia speed record, but they disappeared over the Andaman Sea, unfortunately. It was claimed by Aviator Jimmy Melrose, that he had seen the Southern Cross struggle 61m above the sea which was 240 km from the coastline. The aircraft was later preserved as well.

Preservation of the Southern Cross

Shortly before Charles Kingsford Smith’s death, he had sold the plane to the Commonwealth of Australia to display in a museum. The Southern Cross is currently preserved in the Kingsford Memorial, a special glass hangar, near the Brisbane Airport. Later in 1980-1987 a full-sized flying reproduction of Sir Charles Kinsford Smith's Plane was made and is still the largest known reproduction aircraft in the world.

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