A special emblem about the event that has been enlarged as a large sign, just outside the special Vickers Vimy display building.

My wife, through her extensive newspaper reading and knowing the types of things I was interested in, passed on an article that she thought I might find interesting to read. The article reported that there was to be a special open day in a section of Adelaide Airport to celebrate 100 years from the first flight from London to Australia in 1919. The open day was to happen on Sunday 20th October, 2019 at Adelaide Airport. Apparently, the aircraft that made the flight from London to Australia in 1919 was housed at Adelaide Airport.

I decided to go and take a look. My wife was happy to let me go alone. I needed to sign up for a free ticket, to actually get in to see the aircraft that was flown on that epic journey, an 'almost standard' Vickers Vimy bomber, developed during World War 1.

The aircraft was piloted by Ross Smith (of Adelaide). His navigator and back-up pilot was his older brother, Keith Smith (of Adelaide). The other crew members were two trusted mechanics Jim Bennett (of Victoria) and Wally Shiers (of Adelaide). These two mechanics had served in the Number One Squadron for the AFC in Egypt in World War 1, with Ross Smith.

While walking through the airport grounds, on the way to the special display building that housed the Vickers Vimy aircraft, I saw a number of interesting scenes of the airport in action. Here, a large Singapore Airlines airliner waits on a taxiway (that connects to the main runway at right angles) to enter the main airport runway before taking off. It is waiting for an Air New Zealand airliner to land using the main runway first. The aircraft pilots are in constant radio contact with the airport controllers to make sure that all such manoeuvres are properly coordinated, without collisions, which would be catastrophic.

At a designated time (I think around 10:45 am), when the immediate air space around the airport could be free of commercial flights, there was a special fly-by performed by a small number of vintage DeHavilland aircraft: 2 Tiger Moths, 2 Chipmunk trainers, and a Dragon Rapide (the largest aircraft in this lot, and it was an early airliner aircraft). The small group of vintage aircraft flew slowly over Adelaide Airport. It looked like a sight from a by-gone era, but here it was now in 2019!

The DeHavilland Dragon Rapide airliner aircraft, capable of carrying 6-8 passengers. Being from the 1930s, this aircraft looks like it has been very well maintained.

I think the little scene here is the aftermath of explanations of the plans to re-house the Vickers Vimy aircraft (which was housed in this specially built building) in the main airport terminal building, where it will be seen by many more people who use that main terminal building.

As an example, I have been to Adelaide Airport many times previously and hadn't realised that this aircraft existed, or that this building existed. Had I known, I would have visited it before today.

There were many people there to get a look at the Vickers Vimy. Only a certain number of people were allowed to be in the specially air-conditioned building with the aircraft at any one time, so this was monitored closely. The people standing at the wall on the right had already come out from being in the building with the aircraft, and they were mostly reading some posters that had been prepared to give more details about the epic voyage, and the crew.

Inside the specially air-conditioned building was the Vickers Vimy bomber aircraft that was used to fly from London to Australia. It was made mainly from wood with metal fittings, wire, and covered in Irish linen (that was then tightened and sealed using aircraft dope). Apparently the whole aircraft when loaded with fuel and all equipment still weighed about 6.6 tonnes! It was amazing to see to real aircraft, with its amazing wooden propellers. One could get an idea of its size and fragility. The surface area of its wings looked enormous, but it did have a lot of weight to haul. The reliability of its engines (two 360 h.p. Rolls Royce Eagle VIIIs) was crucial to its success.

The aircraft had an open cockpit for the pilots and a similar open area further back for the two mechanics, which meant that all the crew were exposed to the elements (wind, rain, snow, hail, cold, sun, etc.) while they were flying (and they did indeed fly at times through quite heavy rain and snow). The crew all wore heavy leather air suits and needed to protect themselves against extreme cold temperatures.

It was a very impressive aircraft.

Lainie Anderson was the author of a book about the epic flight, called "Long Flight Home".

She was also involved in the committee involved in putting on this open day.

Hopefully, this image (which I captured from Microsoft Flight Simulator X) might give you a better idea of how the aircraft would have looked with engines running and with the aircraft ready to takeoff. The real aircraft typically took off from grass runways, but this modern concrete runway gives an indication of how long (or wide) the aircraft's wings were.

On the map, the stops made along the trip are shown as small red squares.

The stops along the way were (taken from Ross Smith's book, Smith, R. 14,000 Miles Through the Air. MacMillan & Company, Limited. London. 1922.):

1. Lyons, France (Nov 12th) – stiff with cold the French thought they were mad to fly in such appalling weather!

2. Pisa, Italy (Nov 13th) – Battling against strong winds and rain.

3. Rome, Italy (Nov 15th) – One heavy battle against strong winds and heavy cloud meant they had to fly dangerously low.

4. Taranto, Italy (Nov 16th)

5. Crete, Greece (Nov 17th) – Flying blind they almost hit a rocky island!

6. Cairo, Egypt (Nov 18th) – Wally Shiers had to use chewing gum to seal a crack in one of the engines!

7. Damascus, Syria (Nov 19th) – It hadn’t rained in Damascus for 8 months until the Vimy arrived. Upon take off the propellers showered them all in mud!

8. Ramadi, Iraq (Nov 20th) – A violent sand storm raged and 50 soldiers needed to hold the Vimy down during the night.

9. Basra, Iraq (Nov 21st) – A rest day whilst the Vimy was serviced by the mechanics.

10. Bundar Abbas, Iran (Nov 23rd)

11. Karachi, Pakistan (Nov 24th) – After the longest flying stretch the stress of constant flying was showing on the crew.

12. Delhi, India (Nov 25th) – The constant engine roar had deafened Ross Smith. He didn’t hear a word of the welcoming speeches!

13. Allahabad, India (Nov 27th) – This is where a bull charged the Vimy!

14. Calcutta, India (Nov 28th) – Hawks circled the Vimy after take-off and one hit a propeller. Luckily no damage was sustained.

15. Akyab, Burma (Nov 29th)

16. Rangoon, Burma (Nov 30th) – The Vimy was the first aircraft to ever land at Rangoon (on a racecourse).

17. Bangkok, Thailand (Dec 1st) – A terrifying flight over cloud covered mountains with poor maps to guide them.

18. Singora, Thailand (Dec 2nd) – A miracle landing on the “good airfield” that turned out to be a cleared patch of jungle with tree stumps everywhere and half under water!

19. Singapore (Dec 4th) – As they took off from a racecourse airstrip the Vimy’s wheels grazed the treetops.

20. Kiladjati, Dutch East Indies (Dec 6th) – Near Batavia (now called Jakata).

21. Surabaya, Dutch East Indies (Dec 7th) – The Vimy was bogged but Keith Smith had the good idea to lay down bamboo mats. They took off with the mats flying about everywhere!

22. Bima, Dutch East Indies (Dec 8th)

23. Atamboea, Timor (Dec 9th) – When the Vimy took off for Australia on 10th December, the gust of wind from the engines blew spectators off a fence!

24. Port Darwin, Australia (Dec 10th) – “We almost fell into Darwin” with bone dry fuel tanks.

The flight was done under an incentive by the then Australian Prime Minister, Billy Hughes, who in early 1919 offered a prize of £10,000 to the first Australian crew to fly a British built aircraft from London to Australia within 30 days. It was called the Great Air Race. Critics at the time called the air race a 'circus' that was likely to end in tragedy. And it did end in tragedy for two of the six crews who took up the challenge. Another two crews crashed out of the race, but survived. The Vickers Vimy with its crew was the only aircraft to make it all the way to Port Darwin from London within the 30 days stipulated by the conditions of the prize. Ross Smith and his crew did the flight in 28 days, and later wrote in his book about the flight, titled "14,000 Miles Through The Air" (Smith, R. 14,000 Miles Through the Air. MacMillan & Company, Limited. London. 1922.), that not once since the aircraft left London did it sit under shelter until after it arrived in Australia, which is quite amazing.

The last point to make about this particular aircraft however, is that although I was led to believe that this particular Vickers Vimy was the actual aircraft flown by Ross Smith from London to Australia, this Vickers Vimy is actually a replica built to replace the real aircraft that unfortunately was largely destroyed through a fire which broke out while the real aircraft was being transported by road from Melbourne back to Adelaide. No cause for the fire was given - maybe a cigarette from the driver or other transport crew? It wouldn't surprise me, with the way that many things are done in this country. I only learnt about this some time after visiting the Vickers Vimy at Adelaide Airport, and reading a number of books about the epic journey.

I am not sure whether being told the truth about the aircraft being a rebuilt replica would have changed any sense of admiration for, or understanding of, the achievements made during that epic flight (if the other details are correct), but because that was not told at the time, it makes me feel a bit cheated, and I then wonder what really was the truth in the whole flight? When some of the real facts are hidden or misleading, one is left to ponder just what was really the truth? It only takes a little piece of truth to be left out to change the complexion of any story. Media companies are all too well aware of this.