EPIC FLIGHT

Taranaki Daily News, 10 November 1934, Page 13 (Supplement)

EPIC FLIGHT

ANNIVERSARY ON MONDAY

(By

A. E.)

Next Monday, November 12, is the anniversary of a pioneering epic of the air. At a time when flights of a few hundred miles were outstanding and engineers were inexperienced in the designing and construction .of machines for sustained flights, Captain Ross Smith, Keith Smith, and Sergeants Bennett and Shiers flew from England to Australia. The successful crossing of the Atlantic by Alcock and Brown had been considered almost as a miracle. It had entailed one hop of 1800 miles, assuredly over a hostile ocean. But the flight to Australia called for daily performances each as exacting as an Atlantic crossing. The fliers had to pass through half the world, to fly from winter into summer. After the flight Ross Smith said in his diary; “Previously I had been from England to Australia several times by mail steamer, embarking at Tilbury or Marseilles,” . . . but, this was something vastly different. “This time we had an aeroplane at Brooklands aerodrome and somewhere on the other side of the world was Australia. We were going to climb up into the air and fly through thousands of miles of space to our home.” Only from London to Calcutta were there suitable landing grounds. From Calcutta to Darwin were dense jungle which was unexplored, and the few landing grounds available were quite inadequate for the twin engined Vickers-Vimy plane used on the flight. The flight, as in the Melbourne Centenary race, was for a prize of £lO,OOO offered shortly after the war by the Australian Government for the first aeroplane manned by Australians to fly from England to Australia in a maximum time of 30 days. On October 12, 1919, Messrs. Vickers entered a VickersVimy twin engined machine similar to the one which had crossed the Atlantic. Ross and Keith Smith and Sergeants Bennett and Shiers were chosen as crew. Preparatory to the flight Keith Smith had surveyed the proposed route between Cairo and Darwin. He considered the London-Cairo section sufficiently well known.

On November 12, the Vimy left Hounslow with Ross Smith as pilot and Keith as navigator.. The proposed route was London, Paris, Rome, Cairo, Bagdad, Karachi, Delhi, Singapore, East Indies, Darwin, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, a total distance of 14,350 miles. Over the coast of France they were forced to climb to 9000 feet to avoid a wall of snow-clouds which coated the plane and the goggles of the pilot with particles of ice. The first hop was a terrible journey. They had flown to Lyons on a day officially stated “unfit for flying.” However, it gave them confidence in the machine. From Lyons they made for Rome, but were forced to spend the night at Pisa. In the morning it rained in sheets, and the plane became stuck. Finally it was cleared but Bennett had to leap aboard as it taxied across the ground. After a day of head wind and pouring rain they reached Rome a day late in their schedule. They landed at Taranto, Luda Bay, and Cairo accompanied all the way by unfavourable winds and driving rain. At Cairo reports of the weather ahead were bad, but Ross Smith, knowing the value of every hour, decided to fly whenever possible. At Rambh the crew was nearly blinded and badly cut about by the force of hail and rain. When they arrived at Damascus the weather was fine. Next morning it was raining again, but they soon ran into fine weather. They passed Bagdad, .landing at Basra on November 22. The strain of continual flying, overhauling, refuelling and only 5 or 6 hours sleep at night was telling on them all. Between Basra and Karachi the hostile tribes and broken contour of the country made the thought of a forced landing an uncomfortable prospect. At Delhi a storm required all Ross Smith’s skill to control the plane, but he effected a safe landing, and half the great journey was over. A distance of 5790 miles had been flown in 13 days, the last 2100 miles taking 25 hours of actual flying. After a days’ rest at Delhi, they pushed on to Allahabad, Calcutta, Akyab and Rangoon.

The next part of the flight was the most hazardous. The maps lacking in detail were useless. If anything had caused a landing there was no hope of avoiding a crash. Tropical jungle below, and the landing grounds were scarce. Every night Bennett and Shiers with meticulous care overhauled the engines. A fault would have proved disastrous.. From Rangoon to Bangkok they were forced up to 11,000 feet by clouds, but still could not avoid a dense blanket of mist. They flew blind knowing that hidden below jagged mountains made a certain death-trap if trouble had occurred. After Muang they met the monsoons. The rain was so bad that Ross and Keith Smith discarded their goggles, peering ahead with the water driving into their unprotected eyes. They took shifts of a few minutes, so great was the strain. At Singora, mid-way between Bangkok and Singapore, the Vimy out-raced the storm. At Singapore the first accident to the plane happened, the tail skid being torn on by a „ tree stump on the landing ground. By the next day 10 inches of rain had fallen. A welcome but enforced rest was caused by the delay of petrol supplies from Penang. At Singapore it was as hot as it had been cold in France. Although they had 2500 miles ahead of them, mostly over mountain, jungle and swamp,, and only 8 days left they were so physically tired that another day’s rest was taken. The engines were still running perfectly. They struck better weather after crossing the Equator, reaching Sourabaya without incident, but there matting had to be spread on the sodden aerodrome before the plane could take off. From Sourabaya to Bima there was not a spot at which the plane could land in emergency. From Bima they had but 1000 miles to go with one stop at Atomboca. Most of the last lap was over the Timor Sea. On December 19 the great machine rose for the last time before landing at Darwin; a warship was patrolling that stretch in case of accidents, but it was unnecessary, for the Vimy carried the fliers safely to Darwin, They had only 52 hours to spare, but, had accomplished the feat in 28 days,' paving the way for the latest effort by Scott and Black.