What were Charles Kingsford Smith's achievements?

Answer 1

Charles Kingsford Smith, nicknamed 'Smithy', was one of Australia's best-known aviators, though not the first.

Smithy completed the first non-stop crossing of the Australian mainland and the first flight from Australia to New Zealand. In 1930 he flew 16 000 kilometres single handedly and won the England to Australia air race.

Kingsford Smith is particularly well-known for being the first to cross the Pacific from the United States to Australia, which he did in 1928, in the Southern Cross, a Fokker FVII-3M monoplane. The flight was in three stages, from Oakland, California to Hawaii, then to Suva, Fiji, and on to Brisbane, where he landed at Eagle Farm Airport on 8 June 1928.

Kingsford Smith disappeared in 1935 in the Bay of Bengal whilst flying from England to Australia in the Lady Southern Cross. Wreckage from the aircraft was located off the south coast of Burma eighteen months later, but no evidence of the crew was ever found.