3 Aussie. pioneers, Hinkler, Kingsford Smith, Lores Bonney

[bob10]

just finished reading a Courier Mail lift out about the early aviation pioneers, what an inspiring story. So,from the Courier Mail, 100 years of powered flight.;

Bert Hinkler
born: Dec. 8 1892, Bundaberg.
died: Jan. 7, 1933, Pratomagno, Italy.
Experiments with a home made glider & flies it at Mon Repos Beach, Bundaberg, April 8 ,1912. Became a WW1 fighter pilot. 1920 sets the World distance record in a light plane by flying solo from London to Turin. 1921 sets another World record by flying from Sydney to Bundaberg. 1921-1928 chief test pilot for Avro in Southhampton. 1926 first person to land a plane on a British mountain. 1928 first person to fly solo England to Australia. 1931 first person to fly the South Atlantic solo. 1933 died in an air crash, Italy.

When Bert Hinkler glided his tiny Avro Avian biplane onto the soggy track of the Eagle Farm racecourse he was returning to the city that launched his aviation career to the World. It was Tuesday, Mar. 6, 1928. Bundabergs diminutive son would soon be voted the greatest pilot in the World. He landed in Brisbane to the cheers of 12,000 people, many of them schoolchildren given half a day off to see the Planets most daring man. Two weeks earlier, Hinkler had completed the most audacious flight in history, a solo trek from England to Australia, passing over snowy Alps, smouldering volcanoes, vast deserts, thick jungles, and seemingly endless seas, in a tiny plane with about the same power as a motorbike, in 15 days, 2 hours, proving air travel was the way of the future for an increasingly shrinking World.

A delightful story about Hinkler was his arrival over Bundaberg Monday, April 11 1921. he had left Bundaberg 8 years earlier for England to learn all he could about flying, and his parents hadn't seen him since.Early that morning, he took off from a field in Sydney called Mascot aerodrome in his Avro Baby biplane , aimed for the Hawkesbury river, then headed slightly inland towards the Great Dividing Range and stuck to it as though massaging the spine of Australia. At 10.47 am, he crossed the State border into Qld. at Wallangarra, about 2 pm he caught the sight of canefields around Childers. As he arrived over Bundaberg, Hinklers aged Father , in town doing errands, couldn't believe what he was seeing, and hobbled home as fast as his old legs would carry him. Hinkler flew over his parents house, and his Mother burst into tears as she set sight on her son , as he buzzed low over the house with a cheery " Cheerio, Mum." He then landed on a field in Gavin st, and taxied 200 metres to the front door of his old home.

Hinkler had just completed yet another World Record solo flight, this time covering 1448 kms in 8 hrs. 45 minutes.Today that milestone is celebrated at Bundabergs state of the art Hinkler hall of Aviation, built on a site near where hinkler studied birds in flight as a schoolboy. What is not well known is that Hinklers Father John, arrived in Moreton Bay, in 1865, on a fever riddled migrant ship, from Prussia. John's brother died on the trip

[ have to go sort out a flat tyre on the daughters car, but will return to continue with kingsford Smith, and Lores Bonney, and the remarkable thing which binds them all together.] Bob

[Distortion]

Overview Hinkler’s Message to Australia; Incidents of My Flight (1928) on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online (http://aso.gov.au/titles/spoken-word/hinklers-message/)

[bob10]

Well, job done. I think I was conned, daughter said sweetly" can you show me how to change the tyre Daddy?'', ended up doing it all. Now:

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith
born Feb. 9, 1897, died Nov. 8 1935. Born in Brisbane and grew up in vancouver & Sydney. Joined the AIF in 1915, served at Gallipoli. Transferred to royal Flying Corps, became a pilot in 1917. Gave joy flights in England after the war and also put on aerial shows in America.
1928 leads a crew of 4 on the Southern Cross in the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean from Oakland, California, to Brisbane. Makes the first non stop crossing of Australia from Pt Cook, to Perth, then the first crossing of the Tasman, Sydney to Christchurch. 1930 flies from Ireland to Canada 1934 flies from Aus. to the US in the first eastwood crossing of the Pacific 1935 disappears while flying over the ANDAMAN Sea off Burma.

Soon after 10 am on sat. June 9, 1928, a crowd of 25,000 was at Eagle Farm to see the big blue Fokker Tri- Motor Southern Cross cicle the aerodrome 3 times before landing , it had completed the first flight across the Pacific from America, a journey of 12,000 miles , stopping in Hawaii & Fiji.His arrival came only 3 months before Bert Hinkler's solo flight from England. In 11915, Smithy joined the 1st AIF and saw action at Gallipoli , along with Charles Ulm, who 13 years later was his co-pilot on the flight across the Pacific. Smithy became an Air Force pilot in 1917 & after the war gave joy flights in the North of Englandbefore returning to Aus. in 1921 to take a job with west Australian Airways. In 1928, he & Ulm , backed by funds from retailer Sidney Myer, bought a 2nd hand Fokker from Aussie explorer Hubert Wilkins & named it Southern Cross. At 8.54 am on May 31 1928, Smithy & 3 others took off from oakland & flew into history.
During the next 7 years, he made the first non stop crossing of the Aus. mainland, the first flights between Aus. & NZ. , & the first crossing of the Pacific between Aus. & the US. After a record flight from Aus. to London, he was trying to set another record, London To Aus., when he & co-pilot Tommy Pethybridge, disappeared off Burma. Southern cross is on display at Brisbane airport.


and we come to lores Bonney
Nov. 20, 1897
Died Feb. 24, 1994

Born Maude Rose Rubens, Pretoria, Sth Africa. Married Harry Bonney, Hinklers 2nd cousin, lived in Jordan Tce. Bowen Hills. 1928 first flight in Hinklers Avro Avian 1931 flew 1600 km from Brisbane to Wangaratta 1932 First woman to fly around Aus. 1933 first woman to fly Aus. to England 1937 first flight Aus. to Sth Africa. awarded MBE in 1934 from King George v, Died at Miami, Gold Coast aged 96.

Lores Bonney had never been in an aircrfaft before her wealthy husbands 2nd cousin, Bert Hinkler, came for lunch after his solo flight from England to Aus.. Hinkler took Lores aloft, and she said ' the flight was the answer to my dreams, I adored birds and there I was, literally feeling like one ". In 1930 she began taking flying lessons in secret. She couldn't drive, and at weekends while Harry was at golf, at Royal Qld., she would hitch early morning rides with her milkman to Eagle Farm and take to the air.Harry, who made his fortune in the leather industry, eventually found out about the lessons, but surprised Lores by supporting her love of flying.Lores & Harry bought an open cockpit Gypsy Moth that record breaking cedric Hill had flown from England to Aus.. On boxing day, 1931, Lores flew 1600 kms from Bris. to Wangaratta& then followed it up with a flight 12,000 km around Aus.. Over NW West Aus. the iron ore deposits caused her compass to go haywire, but she flew on. In 1933, she took off for London from Brisbanes new airport at Archerfield, and on June 21, after numerous close scrapes landed at Londons Croyden airport, the first woman to fly Aus. to England. Lores gave up flying at age 50, but still had the travel bug. In later years she explored the Amazon River, living among the Yagua Indians, then moved to Japan, where she became a bonsai expert.It was Lores who chose the name for the road to the airport- Kingsford Smith Drive..

Remarkable people from a remarkable time, but what thread bound them together, you ask ? Obvious, of course.......they were all QUEENSLANDERS!!! 7 IS HEAVEN, 8 WILL BE GREAT! Bob