Not the best of starts...

In order to keep up public awareness of his airline interests and Australian aviation generally, Charles Kingsford Smith took every opportunity to make the headlines. The England to Australia route, a trip halfway around the world, was a gruelling test for pilot and plane and made good press copy. Smithy had the vision to see that this was going to be the air-route and lucrative airmail-route for future airline operators.

A historic flight in a tiny Avro ‘Avian’ by Australian Bert Hinkler had created enormous publicity in Australia and in Britain in 1928 when he made the first solo flight from England to Australia, so what better record to beat than one set up by Hinkler who had rocketed to fame and become the nation’s idol? To make the flight, Smithy chose the same design of aeroplane that Hinkler had flown, Avro’s Avian, shown below right.

He had a depressing start to his record attempt. Only a few days earlier in foul weather, the huge Government-backed airship R 101 had ploughed into a hillside in France on a proving flight to India, bursting into flames. Among much controversy about the airworthiness of the craft, much was expected of the flight with visions of regular airship flights across the British Empire. The huge dirigibles carried larger numbers of passengers and mail than was possible with contemporary fixed-wing airliners and were seen by many as the way forward in aviation.

One of those who died in the grisly skeleton on the hillside near the village of Allones in northern France was Sir Sefton Brancker. He was Director of Civil Aviation in Britain, a powerful official who was a great admirer of Charles Kingsford Smith and one who appreciated Smithy’s great vision of safe air travel over long distances to bring the far-flung British Empire together.

Naturally, Smithy was keen to pay his respects to his eminent friend so when he left on his record attempt, he took off from Croydon, London, in weather as treacherous as that which had downed the monster airship, and headed for the site of the crash on his way south through France. He made a low pass under low cloud over the twisted wreckage sprawled across a hillside, as shown in Marshall’s painting, then turned away in the depressing gloom, setting course for Rome.

The arduous flight went without major incident – the trusty Avian stopping at Rome, Athens, Aleppo in Syria, Karachi, Allahabad, Rangoon, Singapore, Timor and finally Darwin. This took 9 days and 22 hours, beating Bert Hinkler’s solo flight in 1928 by five days. In 1932 Smithy was knighted by Britain’s King George V to become Sir Charles Kingsford Smith...but to Australians, he was still “Smithy” and remains so today and to many, the world’s greatest airman.

The Avian was a two-seat biplane with a wingspan of 28ft (8.53m) and a length of 24ft 3in (7.39 m), it was powered by a 95hp Cirrus III four-cylinder in-line air-cooled engine driving a two-blade fixed-pitch propeller. The maximum speed was 102 mph (164 kph), and the range was 400 miles (644 km), 370 were constructed.

It was designed by Roy Chadwick, the Avro designer who was later to design the famous World War II “Lancaster” bomber.

Marshall’s painting of Bert Hinkler in the prototype Avro Avian on his record flight, pictured approaching Karachi.