When I Think Back...

by Neville Williams

`Smithy' and the Southern Cross -1 The vital supporting role of two-way radio

If the epic flights of (Sir) Charles Kingsford-Smith helped showed the way for today's national and international airlines, they also served, with the co-operation of contemporary 'wireless' amateurs and enthusiasts, to demonstrate the dependance of all such services on two-way radio communica- tion and direction finding. But let's turn back the clock to the period before wireless became airborne.

In so doing, I should perhaps acknow- And I was delighted beyond measure our family met up with him a few ledge initial prompting and assistance in when the authorities, whoever they weeks later at Sydney's Mascot the preparation of this article by Aub were, carved an emergency landing aerodrome. There, my kid sister and I Topp, VK2AXT, librarian of the NSW strip out of the bush a few hundred were strapped into the second cockpit of a Division of the Wireless Institute of metres from our family home, in Bargo traditional biplane, for an all-too-brief flip . Having researched the subject on the NSW southern highlands. About around the area. for a number of WIA Sunday morning 80-odd kilometres south-west of Syd- Years later, I was the guest in an ancient broadcasts, he lists the following refer- ney, it became a staging point for twin-engined De Haviland DH-84 ences in amateur radio literature: QST for pleasure flights and trainee pilots and biplane on shark patrol, as it lumbered off August 1928, p.21; Break In for July every kid in the district would race to the the same 'drome and circled Sydney's 1979, p.280; Popular Radio & Aviation strip on their bikes for a closer look when- major surf beaches. for May 1929, p.10; and Break In for ever a plane landed. When I mentioned this to EA's former March 1972, p.55. One even obliged by stalling above the amateur band correspondent, Pearce In respect to dates, details and con- town and executing a genuine upside- Healy, he warned me not to confuse the tinuity, my task was simplified when I down crash landing, after not quite clear- DH-84 with the DH 'Dragon Rapide', came across a paperback biography en- ing the treetops! which had tapered wingtips, as compared titled SMITHY, the True Story. Written One of the visiting pilots turned out to with conventional square tips on the -84. in 1976 by Ward McNally, it was pur- be a distant cousin, and at his invitation, He knew, he said, because, as a long- portedly based on information supplied by Mrs Mary Tully, the former Lady Kingsford-Smith; Mr Graham Kingsford- Smith; and others who knew Smithy per- sonally, including the late Sir . For the illustrations, and extracts from the Sydney Morning Herald I am indebted mainly to the John Fairfax Group, Syd- ney, while the Macquarie Book of Events provided a handy cross-reference to people, times and places.. In actual fact, I needed little prompting to 'Think Back' on this particular subject, having been fascinated by aeroplanes from boyhood. Heaven alone knows how many toy biplanes I whittled from scrap wood, and how many hours I spent poring over the pages of the technically orientated Modern Boy magazine. I still Fig.1: One of the first planes ever to be assembled in Australia, by AA&E in remember their adventure serial, based Mascot: the Avro 504/Dyak with a water-cooled Sunbeam engine and on the exploits of an English school kid duralumin-covered steel-frame wings. It was in biplanes like this that who had unlikely access to an ancient Smithy honed his skills. Farman biplane.

44 ELECTRONICS Australia, June 1992 time employee of De Haviland in Bankstown NSW, he had been involved in producing the first-ever set of wings for locally made DH-84s! A grassy paddock... As I recall Mascot aerodrome in the mid 1920's, it was just another grassy paddock, reached by an unsealed road and bordered by a post-and-wire peri- meter fence and a pipe-and-wire vehicle gate. You left your Dodge or Hupmobile or T-model Ford on the grass fringe out- side and wandered in to look around. As I remember, there were no aircraft parking aprons, taxiways or sealed run- ways and no pretentious buildings — just a collection of fibro and corrugated iron structures that would not have been out of place on a rural property. The smaller ones were presumably private hangar/workshops. With hindsight, one of the larger ones could have been the Australian Aero Clubhouse; another, a factory where AA&E (the Australian Aircraft & Engineering Co Ltd) assembled and serviced Avro designed aircraft. From Sea, Land & Air magazine (April 1, 1921) I gather that, by then, the above factory had been operational for about nine months, adopting what had formerly been a cow paddock as an aerodrome, with one side fringing a river on which it would have been possible to land seaplanes. At the time the Sea, Land & Air article was prepared, using components im- ported from A.V. Roe & Co in the UK they had assembled two Avro 504-K biplanes with Le Rhone (110hp) engines, and two others with Clerget (130-hp) en- gines. They were also in the course of completing four Avro 504/Dyaks, differ- ing from the others in the use of a Sun- beam 100hp water-cooled engine and steel-frame wings covered with thin duralumin sheets (Fig.1). According to the author, AA&E had successfully fabricated some components including propellers from Australian materials and, for outback use, had devised a handyman repairable wood- based landing gear and an engine Fig.2: At the end of World War I, Smithy was demobilised from the RFC as a `cranking' handle, similar to that fitted to Captain (Training), with a earned over the battlefield of cars, in the cockpit in front of the pilot. Europe. At the time of his death he was recognised as Air-Commodore. My mind boggles! Mascot was still home for planes of this general ilk in the mid-1920's: ordinary our local landing strip; but of the already gested with electronics. Within the planes, `moths' with a single pair of wing struts notable Charles Kingsford-Smith there communication was by hand signals, on either side of the fuselage, and 'big' was no sign. notes or speaking tube; communication ones with two sets of struts on either side. Perhaps it is appropriate to add, with with the outside world was non-existent There were no large planes in sight on hindsight, that I would have found little or — or at best, visual. the day our family chugged up to the gate no wireless equipment on the one-time I recall an experimental night mail in our old 501 Fiat. We looked up war ace cow paddock that was to become flight that was arranged about this same `Bunny' Hammond, whom we had met on Sydney's principal airport — now con- time to some destination south of Sydney.

ELECTRONICS Australia, June 1992 45 WHEN I THINK BACK In the absence of electric power, and as the local garage proprietor, my uncle was commissioned to set up oil drum flares around the Bargo landing strip. At a certain time on the appointed night, he had to light sufficient flares to identify the strip for the approaching plane. If the pilot gave any indication that he wished to land, the remaining flares were to be lit without delay! But enough of my ramblings. Sufficient to say, that this was the world of aviation in which the redoubtable Kingsford- Smith grew up and gained his wings. Born unhyphenated According to Ward McNally, the future aviator was born in to Mr and Mrs William Smith in February, 1897. Their sixth son, he was baptised as Char- les Edward Kingsford. Five years later, the family moved to Canada, where they found themselves in a street with seven other families by the name of Smith. To avoid confusion, they added their youngest son's christian name to the family surname — so that he became Charles Kingsford-Smith, a name retained throughout adult life. When the family returned to Australia, `Chill' ultimately attended Sydney Boys' Technical High School, representing his school in both football and tennis. On leaving school, he found work with the Colonial Sugar Refining Co as an appren- tice electrician, becoming a reportedly speed-crazy motor cyclist at about the same time. Prevented from joining the armed for- ces until his 18th birthday, he ultimately enlisted in the AIF and underwent train- ing in Singleton, NSW. He was thereafter drafted to Egypt and Gallipoli — ending up, after evacuation from Gallipoli, as a Fig.3: This montage was prepared by TAA In 1962, on the 34th anniversary of the trans-Pacific flight, to draw attention to the fact that the Australian motor cycle despatch rider in France. He Government airline had carried its 50,000th passenger. They, along with was so obviously at home on a machine ANA and others had given practical expression to the dream of Smith, that he was selected to train as a pilot for Anderson and Ulm. the RFC (Britain's legendary Royal Hying Corps). Writing home to his parents, he said, While he found the life of a combat have been seen in Australia, attracted im- inter alia: "I have already discovered one pilcit to be one of excitement and chal- mediate attention. He soon tired, how- thing about flying ... that my future, for lenge, he pro-fessed to being sickened by ever, of being cast as a recruiting role whatever it may be worth, is bound up the wholesale slaughter, particularly when model and became impatient to rejoin his with it. Hying has a great future, just you he had been called upon to strafe enemy unit in England. wait and see." columns on the ground. Aerial combat, Ironically, however, and perhaps with After a period of service as a combat man to man, was one thing; seeing his intent, he was despatched to Britain via pilot, during which he was awarded the machine gun bullets ripping into men on the USA, which had just entered the war. Military Cross by King George V in per- the ground was quite another. It haunted Once again he became the centre of at- son, Flying Officer Charles Kingsford- him. tention; but having in mind the implica- Smith was appointed as a flight instructor. At the end of 30 weeks, he was granted tions of America's welcome involve- This was before his 20th birthday. Per- leave to revisit his homeland and, wearing ment, Kingsford-Smith went along with haps it was just as well. the first heavily braided RFC uniform to the recruiting rallies and even vowed to

46 ELECTRONICS Australia, June 1992 Fig.4: Welcome home! Arrival of the Southern Cross at the Eagle Farm aerodrome In Brisbane, at the end of its epic flight across the Pacific in 1928. return when the Kaiser had been put had so publicly questioned. It was the through' with the takings. So it was that in his place. first of several set-backs which he an even more disillusioned former RFC Back in England, with the rank of Cap- was to receive at the hands of Australian Captain found himself back in his tain-instructor, his job was to test and lec- politicians. homeland, with only two American dol- ture the graduating pilots at the various As it turned out, the prize went to two lars in his pocket — this time with a burn- training centres — an assignment to other military pilots, Ross and Keith ing ambition, somehow, to establish which he was eminently suited. Smith, with J.M. Bennett and W.H. Australia's first commercial airline. Shiers, who covered the distance in a But it wasn't to be, because on his Back in Civvy St Vickers Vimy in 29 days, arriving in Dar- arrival he found that an old friend from In November 1918, it was all over. But win on December 10. the RFC, Lionel Lee, had already estab- just when Kingsford-Smith was to return Three weeks later, Smithy was back in lished the 'Diggers' Aviation Co Pty to Australia, he linked up with two other the USA, virtually broke and looking Ltd'. Unwilling to set up in opposition, Australian pilots, Rendle and Maddocks. desperately for a flying job. The only one Smithy sought and was given a job with Between them they bought a couple of available was as a freelance stand-in and 'Diggers', barnstorming around country surplus DH6's and went into the charter stunt pilot, principally for the Universal shows for whatever wages the flight business. It wasn't a success, how- Studios in Hollywood. enterprise could affort to pay. ever and the three friends decided that It proved to be a scary job, even for an Following a couple of minor mishaps their best bet was to trade-in their ex-fighter pilot and Smithy came uncom- they parted company and Smithy joined DH6's on a twin-engine Blackburn fortably close to death when he was re- West Australian Airways, which had Kangaroo — in order to go after the quired to climb out of the cockpit of an been founded in November 1921 and £10,000 prize being offered for the fust Avro biplane and dangle from the wing, granted a mail contract servicing major British aircraft to fly from England to hanging onto a strut. centres north of . Australia in less than 30 days and before Distinctly disillusioned, he was glad to For Smithy, the new job fostered an December 31, 1919. exchange the job for a place in a 'flying affinity for 'outback' communities, and Unfortunately, for reasons best known circus' — especially when he saw a fel- developed his skills at flying long dis- to himself, Australia's then Prime Mini- low stunt flyer incinerated nearby after a tances 'against the clock'. It was also at ster Billy Hughes ruled out their crash. Death on the battlefield was some- WA Airways where he met Keith nomination. thing one had to accept; death on a movie Anderson, a younger but highly skilled This left 'Smithy' with a deep resent- lot was something else. pilot, who shared his emerging ambi- ment and a near obsessive determination The flying circus might have been a tions to blaze new trails and establish to demonstrate pilot skills that Hughes success, except that its promoter 'shot new records in the process.

ELECTRONICS Australia, June 1992 47 record to just over 10 days — a figure backing for the Pacific flight. As it turned WHEN I THINK BACK which Anderson failed to match in a be- out, Smithy's assessment of the plane was lated attempt to regain his lost initiative. validated when it crashed during the race, Rocky road to fame NSW Premier Jack Lang was lavish its pilot surviving by sheer good fortune. Sensing their enthusiasm, WA pas- in his praise of the trio but, when called To make matters worse, in an apparent toralist Keith Mackay offered to back the upon to back their proposed transpacific effort to distance himself from the two men for a trans-Pacific flight. But flight with a government grant, came up `socialist' Lang, the new conservative ironically Mackay was killed when a with a meagre £1000. Even so, Smithy, premier of NSW, Thomas Bavin, dis- charter plane crashed on his way to Perth Anderson and Ulm left on the SS Tahiti owned earlier NSW government support to get the project under way. in July 1927, with the fervent hope that for the Pacific flight and called upon the Smithy and Anderson reacted to the they would be returning by air. trio to return by ship. His statement was news by resigning from WA Airways and By this time, Smithy appeared to have widely reported in the Australian press taking over a promising garage and cattle- conceded control of their day-to-day and relayed to the USA. trucking business based at Carnarvon in business affairs to Ulm, with Ander- Despite the setbacks, Smithy WA. The venture exposed them even fur- son being none too happy about this managed to get enough support to make ther to the rough-and-tumble of outback intrusion. a down payment on a tri-motor living and saw Smithy married, if only mono-plane, which had been used by briefly, to his first wife Thelma. They 'A Never-to-be-forgotten the Arctic explorer, . All were a popular couple but incompatible and it needed was a thorough overhaul and separated without recriminations. Experience' three new Wright Whirlwind motors! (Five-odd years later, Smithy was to 'The genius of Kingsford-Smith is These were ultimately donated by meet Mary Powell on a return voyage that he contacted the right people in 's Sidney Myer but, as the from Britain to Australia. She sub- San Francisco, which resulted in good three men worked tirelessly on the radio arrangements for the Southern sequently became his second and very Cross, with elegant equipment, aug- plane, the Australian press had a field supportive wife and, ultimately, Lady mented by the talent of of a keen, com- day debating the planned flight. Sir Kingsford-Smith. petent operator, James Warner.' Keith Smith, one of two brothers who She bore him a son, Charles junior, who 'The night before the take-off Smithy had won the England/Australia race in was too young to have known his father and Warner told San Francisco 1919, strongly backed Smithy. amateurs: "Just stick by us and we'll in person. Some years after her husband's make it interesting for you": However, Australian aircraft designer death, Lady Mary married a Canadian The Unites States Navy, and com- L.J. Wackett described the project as businessman Allen Tully, becoming a mercial stations in the USA, , 'madness' and deplored their choice of resident of the USA and Canada). Fiji, Australia and kept an aircraft with Germanic connotations But, if Smithy's first marriage didn't watches for KHAB. However, news as 'an insult to Australia's war dead'. prosper, the trucking business certainly about the flight was eagerly sought by Smithy, who had personally faced the did. When sold in November 1925, it the news media from amateur sources, Germans in the skies, dismissed showing that official arrangements yielded enough for the partners to were not complete in themselves.' Wackett's observations as 'crap'! make a down payment in Perth on two 'Numerous US amateurs con- But the tensions and frustrations Bristol aircraft. tributed, including those in Hawaii. Co- had taken their toll within the team, They promptly flew the two planes to ordination and leadership (of the and after what Smithy later Sydney, carrying three paying passengers amateur fraternity) at San Francisco described as 'one hell of a blow-up', between them — a venture which at- was provided by 6CZR. Others spe- Anderson walked out and returned by cially active included Australian 5HG tracted a gratifying amount of media and and Fanning Island 1 AJ.' ship to Australia. public attention. The flyers were suffi- 'Many New Zealand amateurs With the plane finally restored and ciently encouraged to announce, on their copied KHAB, including 1AN, 1FQ, recommissioned, Smithy took aboard a own account, that the same team of 2BG, 2GA and 4AE. Warner's com- huge load of fuel and came within four Kingsford-Smith and Anderson were now mentary made reception a thrilling, minutes of breaking the world record of planning to conquer the Pacific! never-to-be-forgotten experience.' 52 hours for sustained flight. The effort, But fate took a hand when they met up (By Tom Clarkson, ZL2AZ, in Break- including a gut-wrenching takeoff, res- with , who immediately In March 1972) tored his battered credibility and ul- professed his wholehearted support for timately set the scene for the such a venture. While lacking the flying trans-Pacific flight. skills of the other two, as a man of about PR disaster At long last, with the support of Smithy's age, he appeared to have a good In the USA, Smithy was offered spon- American banker Andrew Chaffey and head for planning and organisation. Very sorship by a large oil company in the backed by millionaire shipbuilder Alan soon, the twosome became a threesome. between and Hancock, Kingsford-Smith and Ulm set In short order, Ulm convinced Smithy Hawii. But this was turned down, be- about preparing for the flight, enlisting that he and Anderson should capitalise on cause he considered the plane offered to two Americans as crew members: their epic trans-Australia flight with an him as 'sub-standard'. navigator Harry Lyons and radio attempt on the around-Australia record. Resenting his remarks, the oil com- operator James Warner. At the time this stood at 22 days. pany publicly denounced him — imply- Finally, emblazoned with the name Anderson felt that they should press ing that he was a 'little Australian with a Southern Cross, the Dutch-built FVIIb- ahead with the trans-Pacific project, and big line of patter who lacked what it 3m Fokker took off from Oakland air- expressed himself so strongly about this takes in the real world of flying'! field in California on the morning of that it was Ulm who climbed into the Needless to say, the very public put- May 31, 1928, heading for Wheeler Bristol with Smithy and slashed the down did nothing to assist his quest for Field in Hawaii.

48 ELECTRONICS Australia, June 1992 Fig.5: Photographed on their arrival at Mascot, Sydney, the men who made the first-ever crossing of the Pacific by air. From left: James Warner, Charles Ulm, Charles Kingsford-Smith and Harty Lyon.

Radio equipment Described in amateur literature of the ever, would be prefixed with 'QST' day as a keen, competent operator, 'Jim' (meaning 'calling all stations'), for un- For this venture, Smithy saw to it that Warner had spent the time leading up to restricted use by the recipients. his plane carried on-board radio equip- the flight checking out the equipment and As described in Break-In magazine ment and an experienced operator. Over enlisting the San Francisco amateur (June, 1928) and QST (August, 1928), the land, the pilot and/or navigator could fraternity to monitor transmissions from high frequency equipment was con- have a reasonable expectation of check- the plane. He sought also their co-opera- structed by Ralph Heintz 6XBB of San ing topographical and other sightings tion in alerting amateurs across the Francisco, the transmitter being a tuned- against a map — and in the event of a Pacific, and in New Zealand and grid tuned-plate oscillator built around a forced landing, there was a reasonable Australia. The Southern Cross's callsign 50W tube. Power was to be supplied by chance of finding open space on which for the flight was to be KHAB. two wind-driven AC generators, bolted to the plane could put down. Transmissions on medium wave the outside of the fuselage. But over thousands of kilometres of (600m, 500kHz) would serve mainly for A characteristic of the equipment was featureless ocean in clouded and un- communication with ships at sea and to that a 250-500Hz generator ripple favourable weather conditions, it was all provide possible assistance with naviga- produced a continuous modulation of the too easy for dead reckoning navigation to tion. The bulk of the traffic, directed to carrier, the ripple frequency being af- put them sufficiently off course to miss an amateurs and to possible commercial sta- fected both by the overall speed of the island destination altogether. tions, would be in the high frequency aircraft and by short-term turbulence in Even in those early days — in radio band around 33.5 metres (8.95MHz) — a the slipstream. terms — two-way communication plus frequency accessable at the time to Warner's practice was to 'screw down' the possibility of D/F (direction finding) amateur station operators. the Morse key between messages, so that fixes from ships and shore stations could For the most part, Warner said, traffic a recognisable signal would be available provide invaluable assistance to the on- would be statements about the plane's — indicating that the plane was still air- board navigator. In those days, most such progress and time and position informa- borne and giving some clue to the attitude communication was by means of Morse tion, which the amateurs were en- (climbing, diving, etc) and prevailing code and most of the communicators couraged to keep progressive notes of — flying conditions. were either professionally trained presumably in case the plane was forced The uninterrupted signal provided an ship/shore maritime operators, or self- down in the ocean. incentive for continuous monitoring, and trained amateur operators or enthusiasts. Some of the messages would be offered the further advantage that It was on these groups that the crew of the `addressed' to contracted newspaper in- receivers could be kept properly tuned to Southern Cross had to rely for support terests in San Francisco and Sydney, the transmitter — thereby minimising the during the first ever trans-Pacific flight. being therefore copyright; many, how- risk of a message being missed. In fact,

ELECTRONICS Australia, June 1992 49 match might well ignite more than a ship and ability, Lyon and Warner booked WHEN I THINK BACK friendly cigarette! their passage home by ship. mis-interpreting the generator ripple, Because it was the first and most vul- quite a few non-technical listeners to Australia nerable of Smithy's trans-ocean flights, claimed that they had been monitoring the Thirty-three hours after leaving Bark- the Pacific crossing was the one which sound of the engines! ing Sands, the crew looked down on the most clearly evidenced their dependence Fijian Islands and at 3.30pm, the plane on wireless communication — and the In-flight problems touched down at Suva's Albert Park. There key role played by amateur operators on As to the journey itself, the first six they were welcomed by a huge crowd and the occasion. hours of the run to Hawaii were unevent- Sir Eyre Hudson, the British High Com- While many amateurs monitored the ful. But then they encountered a strong missioner and Governor of Fiji. later flights, their participation appeared headwind that threatened to exhaust their Ironically, after 33 hours in an unpres- not to have been organised to anything fuel supply. Fortunately, the headwind surised plane and exposed to the unat- like the same extent. disappeared as darkness fell and, around tenuated mar of the three Whirlwind It was made abundantly clear, however, midnight, the Southern Cross landed at motors, none of the crew could hear a to the Australian and New Zealand Wheeler Field, to be greeted by a huge word that was being said. Nor could they Governments if not to others around the crowd which had been following its know that messages being flashed to world, that aviation was no longer about progress by radio. newspapers around the world would be two-seater biplanes flitting around the telling their readers that Smithy and his countryside at the whim of their owners. Wheeler Field was too short to permit a In no time flat it would involve mail and take-off with a full load of fuel and, after gallant crew had written their names in- a checkover with the help of the local US delibly into aviation history. passenger airliners at least as big as the After resting and checking over the Southern Cross, flying to regular Military Command, the plane was flown schedules interstate and overseas. They to Barking Sands preparatory to its depar- plane, it was flown to nearby Naselai ture for Suva. It was to be an eventful leg. Beach for re-fuelling and the takeoff would need official communication facilities and navigation aids, similar to Three hours after take-off, Warner dis- for Brisbane. After a night of rain, the like of which those being set up for shipping. covered that one of the wind-driven gen- Writing in QST magazine, official erators had burned out — severely Smithy professed never having seen before, they flew into a fine, sunny dawn organ of the American Amateur Radio limiting his ability to receive signals. Relay League, in August 1928, J. Walter Since Warner had warned other amateurs — crossing Australia's eastern seaboard adjacent to Ballina in northern NSW. Frates (6CZB, Oakland, California) that his workload and conditions general- pointed out that it was primarily the ly might prevent him from engaging in As they approached the coast after such amateur fraternity that had maintained two-way working, he was less disturbed a night, Warner had asked "Are there any contact with the Southern Cross on its than he might otherwise have been by direction finding beacons?" The answer historic flight. In his article 'Following the failure. was "No" — as the navigator, he was on the Southern Cross to Brisbane' he says: Instead, he concentrated on reporting his own! When commercial and 'non-amateur' the plane's progress and position, confi- There was never any risk of them not stations had either long since given up or dent that amateurs and other stations encountering the Australian coast but, were having difficulties on the Pacific around the Pacific area would be keeping after passing through a violent storm and coast (of USA), amateurs in San Francis- watch. Shortly afterwards, a smear ap- a night of blinding rain, they still ended co and Oakland were still listening to the peared on the windscreen which looked up over 100km south of their intended steady drone of the transmitter and com- like escaping oil. But much to the relief of course — a graphic indication of the un- fortably copying the signals, until KHAB all aboard, it turned out to be a con- certainties of trans-ocean air navigation at reported itself beyond the Loyalty Islands densation effect. the time. and within a few hundred miles of Bris- Next they ran into a violent electrical As it was, a short time later they set bane, where daylight intervened and the storm and Smithy, at the controls, gave an down on Brisbane's , burden of communication was taken up unsought demonstration of the great pilot to be greeted by a massive crowd. As in by Australian and New Zealand that he was. Some time later, they en- Hawaii, everyone had been alerted to amateurs, some of whom had been copy- countered a second storm and, this time, their pending arrival by local broadcast ing the signals since the first night out of with Smithy trying to snatch a few stations (Fig.4). Oakland.(See also panel) minutes rest, it was Ulm's turn to copy The Southern Cross had covered While Walter Frates' comments were Smithy's techniques in dodging the black- 11,767km over the Pacific ocean, in an intended to emphasise the role of amateur est clouds, while not losing track of the actual flying time of 83hrs and 35mins. operators, by implication they also em- course they were supposed to be flying. Its Whirlwind motors had revolved about phasised the technical limitations and the Three hours later, they had left the 34 million times 'without missing a beat'. operational inflexibility of the profes- clouds behind and there was the celestial Smithy had been at the controls for 52 sional monitoring stations at the time. Southern Cross. They were in the hours and Ulm for 31. As pictured in the story of Sid Newman southern hemisphere. Ulm recorded the Back in Sydney on the following day (EA, January 1991, p.50) the AWA fact in the logbook, and reached for a (Fig.5), they were met by another huge shortwave transmitter at Pennant Hills, thermos of hot coffee — only to discover crowd at the Mascot airport and wel- NSW was one commercial installation that the flasks had ruptured during all comed by Governor-General Lord that helped to maintain contact with the the buffeting, and that the coffee on Stonehaven and NSW Governor Sir Dud- Southern Cross. board was cold and sour. ley de Chair. Premier Sir Thomas Bavin, Pictures appearing in this article have They couldn't even smoke, because a who had sought in vain to frustrate the been provided by the Feature Bureau of distinct smell of petrol suggested that a attempt, was discreetly absent. John Fairfax & Sons Limited. fuel leak had developed somewhere and a Loud in their praise of Smithy's leader- (To be continued)

50 ELECTRONICS Australia, June 1992