William Dargie’s 1961 painting Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Captain Charles Ulm evokes the optimism of the partnership’s early days.
There is no evidence that Lyon or Warner ever saw Kingsford Smith and Ulm after leaving Australia in June 1928.
John Ulm arranged for Warner, Lyon and their wives to retrace the 1928 flight, but this time in the comfort of a Qantas Super Constellation. With a film crew, they visited Oakland aerodrome, Wheeler Field, Suva and Naselai beach, before arriving in Brisbane in time for the unveiling of the Sir Charles Kingsford Smith Memorial. Surviving radio broadcasts reveal that the personalities of the two Americans had changed little in three decades. Warner retained the self-effacing, even shy demeanour that had caused him to always duck attention and publicity, while Lyon, still exuding wit and charisma, acted as the party’s spokesperson, charming all he met. By all accounts, he still enjoyed a drink.
The Sir Kingsford Smith Memorial opened at Brisbane airport on a brilliantly sunny 17 August 1958. Around 500 invited guests and 3,000 spectators (‘pilgrims’, the press called them) witnessed an aerial display by air force fighter jets followed by an official address by the federal Treasurer, Sir Arthur Fadden. In the months leading up to the ceremony, dozens of people who had known Kingsford Smith and Ulm had written to the government, protesting the lack of recognition the memorial gave Southern Cross’ original ‘co-commander’, Charles Ulm. Their lobbying didn’t achieve a name change of the memorial but it resulted in a plaque mentioning Ulm. In fact, during the official proceedings the only reference to Ulm’s significance came, perhaps surprisingly, from Harry Lyon. ‘Charlie Ulm was a great aviator any country would be proud to claim’, he told the audience. ‘This is Smithy’s day, but he would be the last man in the world to begrudge mention of his co-pilot.’
John Ulm found Lyon’s gesture moving; he still recalls it with a great deal of gratitude. Nonetheless, he has since found himself correcting official statements (including in one instance, by a prime minister) regarding his father’s place in what is too often presented as the ‘Smithy’ story. In 1980 he was still corresponding with the Kingsford Smith Memorial Trust to secure his father a mention in their promotional and educational material.
In September 1957, Southern Cross went on display in Sydney’s Hyde Park one last time before its final journey to Brisbane. For two shillings, people could inspect the aircraft up close, look through the windows and take home a pamphlet on its history. Dorothy Drain, editor of the Australian Women’s Weekly, went and had a look. She was, frankly, underwhelmed by the tired-looking aircraft. Peering through the windows on the fuselage she made out ‘the tiny shabby cabin’ and a couple of ‘battered, uncomfortable seats’. It didn’t seem to match the rhetoric in the newspapers, which described the aircraft as a ‘relic’ that was to be ‘enshrined’ in Brisbane in front of thousands of ‘pilgrims’.
Indeed, Drain—like many others—had good reason to find not much remarkable about Southern Cross . Its dull fabric covering, boxy appearance and sparse interior were a world away from the ‘jet age’ of the 1950s. Yet, as Drain suddenly realised, this was precisely where the aircraft’s significance to future generations lay. Southern Cross , in its rough, unassuming plainness represented the extraordinarily rapid development of aviation in the twentieth century and the handful of remarkable, forward-thinking individuals like Charles Ulm and Charles Kingsford Smith who were wholly responsible for it; and, who lost their lives in pursuit of its development.
‘You could see enough’, Drain concluded after reflection. ‘Enough to evoke Smithy and his crew aloft over the Pacific, enough to remind you of the wild adventure that was aviation nearly 30 years ago.’
Southern Cross on display at the Sir Charles Kingsford Smith Memorial, once again parked near where it landed on 9 June 1928.
‘You could see enough … to evoke Smithy and his crew aloft over the Pacific.’
APPENDIX
Trans-Pacific flight statistics
First leg: California to Hawaii
Take-off: Oakland aerodrome, California, 8.54 am, Thursday, 31 May 1928
Landing: Wheeler Field, Oahu, 12.17 pm, Friday, 1 June 1928
Distance: 3,876 kilometres
Flying time: 27 hours 23 minutes
Average ground speed: 141.5 kilometres per hour
Second leg: Hawaii to Fiji
Take-off: Barking Sands, Kauai, 5.22 am, Sunday, 3 June 1928
Landing: Albert Park, Suva, 3.50 pm, Tuesday, 5 June 1928
Distance: 5,079 kilometres
Flying time: 34 hours 32 minutes
Average ground speed: 147 kilometres per hour
Third leg: Fiji to Australia
Take-off: Naselai, 2.52 pm, Friday, 8 June 1928
Landing: Eagle Farm aerodrome, Brisbane, 10.50 am, Saturday, 9 June 1928
Distance: 2,962 kilometres (including the detour via Ballina, New South Wales)
Flying time: 19 hours 58 minutes
Average ground speed: 148 kilometres per hour
Total flying time: 81 hours 53 minutes
Total distance: 11,917 kilometres
Overall average ground speed: 145.5 kilometres per hour
In addition to this, Southern Cross made an hour flight between Wheeler Field and Barking Sands and a 55-minute flight between Albert Park and Naselai.
Kingsford Smith estimated that each of the three propellers had made approximately 8 million revolutions during the flight.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Susan Hall, Publishing Manager at the National Library of Australia, commissioned this book in September 2010 after reading a review for my first book, the then recently published, Fire in the Sky: The Australian Flying Corps in the First World War. I’d like to thank her for having faith in a historian still in the early days of his career and for providing such efficient management of this project. Her encouragement, insight and criticism have all contributed to this book and are greatly appreciated.
I’d also like to acknowledge the professionalism and expertise of Susan’s colleagues at the National Library, Senior Editor Jo Karmel and Image Content Coordinator Felicity Harmey. The Library assigned Maree Bentley to work on this project as a research assistant. Her diligent detective work turned up a number of valuable sources and made researching and writing a book while living outside Canberra much easier than it may have been otherwise. John Mapps edited the manuscript, providing it with a much-needed polish, and designer Liz Faul turned my black and white prose into the attractive volume before you.
Among the plethora of books on Kingsford Smith, Ian Mackersey’s Smithy: The Life of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith remains the standard work. In preparing his compelling, eminently readable example of historical biography, Ian tracked down a number of Kingsford Smith’s ex-colleagues and family members, many then in the twilight of their lives. Ian generously shared material he had obtained in the United States from the families of Jim Warner and Harry Lyon, allowing me to position Charles Ulm’s log within a richer context of the crew’s experiences of the flight.
The highlight of researching and writing this book has been meeting and striking up a friendship with Charles Ulm’s son, John. He and his wife Valda extended me the warmest hospitality and John patiently weathered my barrage of questions. Though by his own admission, he has few memories of his father (and none preceding the trans-Pacific flight) his understanding of those times and insight into the personalities of his father’s colleagues proved invaluable. Besides, it is not every day that a historian gets to have lunch with a man who flew Spitfires in combat during the Second World War and worked with the management of Qantas during its post-war transition into a truly global airline. This book is for John— son of a great Australian aviation pioneer and indeed, one in his own right.
Despite already knowing the cost of having a husband committed to writing a book, my wife Melissa encouraged this project from the outset and supported it with love, grace and patience—traits she dis
plays in epic enough proportions (despite my failings) to be worthy of a book of their own.
Michael Molkentin
November 2011
www.michaelmolkentin.com
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Sam Hood (1872–1953)
Charles Kingsford Smith in Air Force Uniform with a Teenage John Ulm c. 1911–c. 1945
Courtesy State Library of New South Wales
Logbook of the Southern Cross, Trans-Pacific Flight
31 May 1928–9 June 1928
Papers of Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith 1917–1935
Manuscripts Collection
nla.ms-ms209-1
Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm and Bob Hitchcock Round-Australia Flight with a Bristol Tourer Biplane G-AUDJ 1927
black and white photograph; 12.0 × 16.4 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3722965
Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm in RAAF Uniforms amongst Group of Men Celebrating c. 1928
sepia-toned photograph; 8.2 × 10.4 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3930638
Captain Kingsford Smith and Mr C.T.P. Ulm
June 1928
black and white photograph Courtesy John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland
92-8-4
Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm
c. 1933
black and white photograph; 21.5 × 13.5 cm
Courtesy State Library of South Australia
“Dramatic Story From the Sky”
Reproduced from The Sun , 3 June 1928
Newspapers Collection
Charles Ulm with His Mother and Father 1914
black and white photograph; 20.3 × 25.8 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-an24808557
Algernon Darge (1878–1941)
Charles Kingsford Smith, Standing behind a Seated Man, Both in Military Uniform c. 1915
black and white postcard; 13.9 × 8.7 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3723606
James C. Cruden
Portrait of Charles Ulm in Military Uniform with Riding Crop c. 1915
sepia-toned postcard; 13.4 × 8.5 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3930590
Charles Ulm in Military Uniform, Seated on a Camel near the Great Sphinx, Cairo, Egypt 1915
sepia-toned postcard; 13.7 × 8.6 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3930594
James C. Cruden
Portrait of Charles Ulm in Military Uniform Reading a Book c. 1915
black and white postcard; 13.9 × 8.8 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3930960
British Art Studios, London
Charles Kingsford Smith, Seated next to Man Standing, in Royal Flying Corps Uniform c. 1917
sepia-toned postcard; 13.5 × 8.6 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3723607
Group Portrait of No. 19 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, with Charles Kingsford Smith Seated in Second Row, Second from Right c. 1917
black and white photograph; 20.4 × 15.3 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3723610
Charles Kingsford Smith Stunting for Movies, California 1922
black and white photograph; 16.3 × 12.6 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3723531
Unknown photographer Portrait of Captain Keith Anderson and Bobby Hitchcock 1920s
sepia-toned photograph; 16.7 × 21.6 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3723094
Crew of Exhibition Fliers, with Charles Kingsford Smith Standing Second from Right, California c. 1920s
black and white photograph; 20.6 × 25 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3722906
Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm Being Welcomed back to Sydney by the Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang, with a Bristol Tourer (G-AUDJ) in the Background, Mascot Aerodrome, Sydney June 1927
sepia-toned photograph; 16.5 × 21.4 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3930600
The Crew of the Southern Cross at Brisbane after Their Epic Flight from California, Left to Right, Harry Lyon, Navigator, Charles Ulm, Co-pilot, Charles Kingsford Smith, Chief Pilot, and James Warner, Radio Operator 1928
black and white photograph; 15.5 × 20.2 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3723641
Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm in Aviation Suits 1929
black and white photograph; 30.5 × 17.1 cm
on mount 48.1 × 29.9 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3930973
H.B. Miller Harry Lyon, James Warner, Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm in front of the Southern Cross, Fokker Monoplane VH-USU, with Three Friends, before Take-off for Oakland from Los Angeles, California, Unites States 23 May 1928
black and white photograph; 20.7 × 25.5 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3930809
The Southern Cross, Fokker Monoplane VH-USU Being Farewelled by Group of Onlookers, Long Beach Airport, Los Angeles, California, United States
23 May 1928
black and white photograph; 24.9 × 29.3 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn4926307
Map that appeared in newspaper in Captain Harry W. Lyon’s personal papers
Manuscripts Collection
MS 5312
East on 14th Street, San Leandro, California 1 October 1928
sepia-toned photograph
Courtesy Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley
North on Mission St from 29th St, San Francisco January 1928
Courtesy Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Portrait of Charles Kingsford Smith and Sir Hubert Wilkins in front of the Southern Cross, Fokker Monoplane VH-USU, Oakland Aerodrome, California, United States 31 May 1928
black and white photograph; 36.1 × 49.5 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn4926277
Clock Belonging to Charles Kingsford Smith 1928
steel, 7.4 × 7.4cm
Pictures Collection
Group of Men at an Atlantic Union Oil Company Aircraft Refuelling Pump with Charles Ulm at the Pump c. 1928
sepia-toned photograph; 10.5 × 8.2 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3930639
Unknown photographer Portrait of Charles Ulm June 1928
black and white photograph; 21.7 × 16.5 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3930636
Keystone View Company Charles Kingsford Smith 1930
sepia-toned photograph; 20.7 × 16.4 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3424257
Group of Adults and Children Standing next to the Wing of the Southern Cross, a Fokker F.VII/3m Monoplane, VH-USU, Looking up, Perhaps at an Aeroplane c. 1928
sepia-toned photograph; 8.5 × 10.5 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3930641
US Navy Hydrographic Office
North Pacific Ocean Eastern Part
September 1927
part of Navigational Charts Used by Charles Kingsford Smith in the 1928 Crossing of the Pacific
Maps Collection
nla.map-rm2811-5
Charles Ulm Servicing the Engine of the Southern Cross, a Fokker F.VII/3m Monoplane, G-AUSU c. 1928
sepia-toned photograph; 8.4 × 10.6 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3930643
Sun Feature Bureau
Portrait of Radio Operator James Warner Testing the Wireless in the Southern Cross, Fokker Monoplane F.VII/3m, VH-USU 1928
black and white photograph; 10.5 × 16.5 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn39
30743
H.B. Miller
Portrait of Harry Lyon, Charles Ulm, Charles Kingsford Smith and James Warner in front of the Southern Cross, a Fokker F.VII/3m Monoplane, VH-USU, Los Angeles, California, United States 23 May 1928
black and white photograph; 20.7 × 25.5 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn3930681
H.B Miller
Cabin of Kingsford Smith’s Fokker F.VII/3m Trimotor Monoplane, VH-USU, Southern Cross, Looking Forward towards the Cockpit, Showing Extra Fuel Tank, Brisbane, Queensland 1928
black and white photograph; 20.5 × 25.1 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-vn4916633
Charles Kingsford Smith in the Cockpit of Fokker Trimotor Monoplane VH-USU Southern Cross during Trans-Tasman flight 1928
black and white photograph; 16.0 × 20.6 cm
Norman Ellison Collection
nla.pic-vn4970358
Sam Hood (1872-1953)
[Composite photograph of “Southern Cross” FH-USU in flight. Note exhaust pipes over the wings]
Courtesy State Library of New South Wales
Kingsford Smith’s World Flight 3 Shilling Postage Stamp 1931
Courtesy National Archives of Australia
A1200/18
United States Hydrographic Office
Nautical Chart, California to Hawaii (No. 527 121st Edition May 1925)
Printed Chart with Manuscript Annotations
Flying the Southern Cross Page 12
