Saturday, August 04, 2007

 

The Most Famous Aeroplane


This is the most famous aeroplane of all time. It is the Fokker Trimotor "Southern Cross" which was flown on many pioneering flights by Charles Kingsford-Smith, Dad's hero. Smithy called her "the old bus" and said that she was the perfect aeroplane and that she never let him down. This was the first aircraft to fly across the Pacific from America to Australia (in 1928), the first to fly non-stop across Australia (1928), the first to cross the Tasman in both directions (1928), the first to cross the Atlantic from east to west from Ireland to New York, and the first to fly completely around the world crossing the equator twice (in several flights between 1928 and 1930). It also made some of the earliest air-mail flights between England and Australia and across the Tasman. Today it sits in a special memorial building at Brisbane airport. Do visit it if you are in Brisbane and think how different airliners are today, and how the air routes between Australia, England and America were first travelled by this great aeroplane and Smithy. There is just one brief mention in Dad's library of Smithy carrying a Teddybear on one of his flights. I like to think he always did.

I will be away for a week, but more on Smithy when I get back.

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