Lady Southern Cross
The Lady Southern Cross was a
In this aircraft, Kingsford Smith made the first eastward trans-Pacific flight from Australia to the United States, in October and November of 1934.
Delivery
In April 1934, Kingsford Smith ordered an aircraft from
The aircraft was delivered by ship to
After finally getting the machine, now named Lady Southern Cross, out of Customs, Kingsford Smith and copilot
Trans-Pacific flight
Now in financial trouble, and with the Lady Southern Cross facing withdrawal of its airworthiness certificate if it did not leave Australia, Kingsford Smith decided to attempt the first eastward crossing of the Pacific Ocean by aircraft, from Australia to the United States.
Kingsford Smith and Taylor departed
After arriving safely in Oakland on 4 November 1934, the Lady Southern Cross was left in the care of Lockheed at Burbank, California for repair, overhaul and storage.[4]
England-Australia
With the Lady Southern Cross substantially repaired and rebuilt in Burbank, Kingsford Smith flew cross-country to New York in September 1935 and had the Lady Southern Cross put on a ship to England. After obtaining a British airworthiness certificate, and having been turned back once by a hailstorm over Italy, Kingsford Smith and co-pilot Tommy Pethybridge left Croydon Airport in London on 6 November 1935 in an attempt to break the England to Australia speed record set during the MacRobertson Air Race.[5]
Disappearance
Kingsford Smith and Pethybridge were flying the Lady Southern Cross overnight from
Eighteen months later, Burmese fishermen found an undercarriage leg and wheel (with its tyre still inflated) which had been washed ashore at Aye Island in the Gulf of Martaban, 3 km (2 mi) off the southeast coastline of Burma, some 137 km (85 mi) south of Mottama (formerly known as Martaban). Lockheed confirmed the undercarriage leg to be from the Lady Southern Cross.[5] Botanists who examined the weeds clinging to the undercarriage leg estimated that the aircraft itself lies not far from the island at a depth of approximately 15 fathoms (90 ft; 27 m).[7] The undercarriage leg is now on public display at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia.[8]
In 2009 a Sydney film crew claimed they were 100% certain they found the Lady Southern Cross.[9] The location of the claimed find was widely mis-reported as "in the Bay of Bengal" - the 2009 search was at the same location where the landing gear had been found in 1937, at Aye Island, in the Andaman Sea. However, this claim was treated with scepticism by well-known businessman and pilot, Dick Smith, while Kingsford Smith's biographer, Ian Mackersey, described it as "complete nonsense".[10]
See also
References
- ^ VH-USB "Lady Southern Cross" (Part 1)
- ^ Dept of Veteran Affairs: Acceptable uses of "ANZAC" Archived 26 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ VH-USB "Lady Southern Cross" (Part 2)
- ^ a b VH-USB "Lady Southern Cross" (Part 3)
- ^ a b VH-USB "Lady Southern Cross" (Part 4)
- ^ "Kingsford-Smith missing in storm". The Bend Bulletin. No. 132. 8 November 1935.
- ^ By Aye TIME 1938-06-06
- ^ "Aircraft undercarriage from the 'Lady Southern Cross'". Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences.
- ^ Vallejo, Justin (21 March 2009). "Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's final resting place found, says film crew". News.com.au. Archived from the original on 23 March 2009.
- ^ Gibson, Joel (22 March 2009). "Kingsford Smith? Not likely, says Dick Smith". The Sydney Morning Herald.