THE WORLD'S GREATEST AIRMAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 22, 27 January 1937, Page 20

THE WORLD'S GREATEST AIRMAN.

SMITHY VERSUS "OFFICIALDOM." Drama Of Unsold 'Plane. Why He Declined Big Offer For Abyssinia Flight. INVITED TO JAPAN. (By FLYING-OFFICER BEAU SHEIL. who was Sir Charie. Kingsford Smith's personal assistant.) (Copyright.) XXIV.

THE Commonwealth had purchased the historic Southern Cross for £3000. Smithy decided that with this cheque—which he did not receive, and which was eventually paid to his widow many months later —he would be in a position to bring oack the Lockheed Altair which had been flown across the Pacific to America and left in America for gale, so that he could refund to Sir Macpherson Robertson the substantial part of the purchase money which he had given to help Smithy to compete in the Centenary Air Race.

The Altair was a two-seat racing 'plane, and for racing 'planes, like racing cars, there is a very limited market. It was hope<l that some wealthy American sportsman-pilot would make a reasonable offer for it, btit nine months after the air race and the Pacific flight it. was still unsold. It was a glorious aircraft and Smithy delighted in it. Yet he realised that if he took it back he would not be in a position to keep such an "expensive toy." His idea, when he went to America, wa« to have it converted into a Lockheed Orion type, a five-passenger cabin 'plane, which would be commercially useful.

He planned to employ this machine on a fast Sydney-Adelaide service, as a first step to establishing an express air service between Sydney and Perth, flying mails and passengers to connect with the English steamers at Fremantle in about 15 hours from Svdnev.

Like Charles Ulm, Smithy had commercial vision and, when I joined him, he had both the trans-Tasman service and this transcontinental air plan in mind.

But the conversion idea of turning the Altair into an Orion would not work out, and although Lockheeds generously offered him a new Orion fuselage at half-price he could not afford it. He was thus left with the Lockheed Altair. It had cost £6000 second hand.

"1 am seriously tempted to seii at a colossal sacrifice—about 10.000 dollars ( £2500)," he said in a letter written to me from America in August. He believed that he could fly the Altair to Australia in record-breaking time, clipping the epoch-making Ti hours to Melbourne set by Soott and Black in the Centenarv Air Race.

But, he wrote at this stage, he was tempted to abandon the flight idea and "ship the machine to Australia by the next boat."

To that he added the words previously referred to which hold so much tragic significance in view of what happened when he did undertake that flight: "1 nevertheless believed that tin- prestige gained by the flight. ope.ially if done in record time, would enable me to talk more effectively to the Government on the trans-Tasman proposition." That was his principal reason for seting out on that last ill-fated flight to Australia.

How little did those armchair critics know who said that there was "no need for Smithy to go on with 1 lic-~e 'stunt' flights"—as though he was a speedcrazy egoist who flew purely for sensation, limelight, laurels and personal publicity!

Another reason he had ft>r not sacrificing the Altair in America and for bringing it back t<> Australia was that he needed u 'plane— and for this joli the Altair would have heen suitable— for a nationally important goodwill flight from Australia to Japan. Itr'■as invited by the Japanese Government tor make this flight and had agreed to do so in the festival .season of January. 1930. The Japanese informed him. "Yes, we know Australia's Mr. Latham since he visited us, but to the people of Japan two men have been symbols of Australia—your King.sford Smith and your Jack Crawford." "The Japanese are undoubtedly interested, as they telephoned me from Tokyo to make sure that. T was really visiting the Japanese Empire next year," Smithy wrote in a letter from America on August 21. Apart from considerations. Smithy could not have shipped the Lockheed back to Australia fnom America for. under the ban which then pre vailed on American aircraft, it would not have been admitted. The Commonwealth regulations said, in effect, that, the 'plane which had been flown across the Pacific Ocean by Smithy and Taylor could not be recognised as airworthy, because it had onlv an American certificate, to say it was. America did not count. America, was not a signatory to the International Convention of Air Navigation regulations. ! The reason for this was that America declined to be hamstrung bv a Pet of regulations and requirements which she regarded a*, out-of-date and a. drag on aviation progress: Tf Britain would validate the AUair's certificate then it could come into Australia. (Britain did not bar entry to American aircraft.) This was made deva«st«tingly clear to us in a reply wire from the Civil Aviation Department (which could only carry out the farcical "ban" regulations, which have since been removed) when we asked for the Lockheed to be certificated here from America. The wire read: "American certificate airworthiness validated by T.C.A.N. country must be obtained before Lockheed can secure entry Australia or reissue Australian registration."

When the Lookheed had been brought out to fly in the Centenary Air Race it had been granted a limited and special registration.

'"Exhausted every avenue. Civil aviation even refuse reissue previous Australian certificate. Distressed." John Stannaze cabled Smithy.

So the Altair bar! to be taken to England.

"The freight for the Altair across the Atlantic is likely to he heavy," Smithy wrote, "but I believe T can pet it for not more than 1000 dollars, which i« the absolute limit to which. I am prepared to go.

"I would suggest," he • added, "that you have a heart to heart talk with either Parkhill or the responsible Press in Australia to try to do something about these stupid damned regulations. Honestly, it looks as though they are frightened that I might possibly break the record in an American machine, and are therefore terrified that British prestige may be lowered through a mere Australian having the temerity to use such an aircraft."

So the Altair had to be shipped to .England. On arrival in London it was necessary to hire a floating crane, at a cost of £90, to lift the 'plane from the dock on to a barge. The barge took it down the Thames and at low tide it was floated off 011 skids from the bargo on to a mud bank. Smithy had ■to fly it off the mud bank, which was worse than hits having had to fly it off Anderson Park, at North Sydney, when it arrived in Australia. That flight off the Thames mud bank was a feat of airmanship requiring Smithy's own brand of skill. Yet that was a minor difficulty, compared with what now faced him with "officialdom." He had an American certificate of airworthiness and an export certificate. To secure entry of the machine to Australia ho wanted a normal British certificate. To enable him to carry en adequate petrol load to give long range for the record attempt he needed a •special category" certificate to load the quantity of petrol he knew the Altair could carry. I had joined him in England, on trans Tnsman business, and it appeared to both of us that minor officials in the Air Ministry were interpreting every rule they could against Smithy's requests, because he had an American machine. All sorts of particulars were asked for regarding the Lockheed. We had to send cables to America. When the replies came, armed with the information, wc went back to the Air Ministry, feeling that the delay* must be ended at last. We had' everything they had asked for. Surely it "would be "0.K." now. How wrong wc were! .An official looked over the data, then (-aid: "How do I know that this data refers to the Lockheed in question 1" Smithy felt this kind of thing. Not only was the pin-pricking humiliating to a man who knew more about flyin" than theso petty officials could ever hope to know, but it was making him irritable and nervy. He wanted to carry a little more than 300 gallons of petrol. Officialdom would not sanction it. He pointed out that lie had taken off. while on the 'Pacific flight, with .V_'o gallons. And that wa» from the beach at Suva. The reply was that his full load ntiivt be limited to lbs gallons! The ab»ur dity of this riled Smithy. In the Lockheed Altair he had a' first-class aeroplane with a .V>o horse-power engine, and he was being limited to 118 gallons. Vet he had been allowed llti gallons in the Percival liull with its 1.10 horsepower motor when he took off on the record solo flight of 1032. In the Altair he had :>2O extra horsepower, more than four times the power of the Kipsy enpine in the liull—and he was allowed only two more gallons full load. Although' Smithy had proved that his 'plane could curry four times US gal lon-* and more than wa« the maximum loud for which he could secure a certilicate ami it took live nolid week* to get that!

TliPfO delay* over technical difficulties had far-reaching effects. They lost him the October full moon for his'flight and the good weather that went with-it. They-affected his health.

At that time an English group oi newspapers made Smithy an unusual offer which he felt lie was not in a position to accept. They offered to buy the Lockheed for iIKOOO if he would fly it for them for six months, between England and Abyssinia (then ot war with Italy), carrying photographs am; dispatches.

Smithy was ready and willing to sell the 'plane for any reasonable figure but he replied that, since he had been given the rank of air commodore in the Royal Australian Air Force, it niipht cause some international comment if he associated himself with the Abyssinian situation. He had no wish to ambarras> any section of British or Australian feeling. )\o could do with the ni.mei offered, but he felt he must decline. The newspapers could buy the machine and get. some other pilot "to fly it. Xo. they replied, none but Kingsford Smith would do.

Tom Pethybridge was in England to be co-pilot on the flight, and R. X. Boulton, Smithy's engineer ot Mascot, was also there to see that,the motor was thoroughly in order.

When he did take off, with the meaffre 118 gallons, aboard necessitating a stop at Marseilles, the few of us who were present, including C. W. A. Scott, chuckled, for Smithy had said he would leave at. 7 a.m. As the first stroke of seven boomed out from the clock he opened the throttle: before the last stroke had sounded he was not onlv off the ground but banking steeply around the control tower and heading'for Australia.

Following this take-off on October2o, Smithy and Pethybridge ran into a violent storm as they headed out from Italy towards (Greece. They were forced back to Brindisi when ice formation ripped and badly damaged the leading edge of the' wing. Italian military authorities helped them make temporary repairs and thev flew back to London to prepare the machine for another fake-off when the storms alia ted.

How. before that take-off. Smithv had been so severely ill that I booked h : s passage by boat for Australia, and to what extent his physical condition may have led to his death, will be explained in the article following concerning Smithy's last flight.

(To be concluded on Saturday.)