Today in Technology History

An event that occurred on this date in the history of technology.

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June 9

Since 2003 is the centennial of the Wright brothers' first flight, we've written a lot about the history of aviation this year, including several recent stories about transoceanic aviation, like the first airplane trip across the Atlantic, and Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic. Today, we'll switch to the world's biggest ocean, since the first airplane trip across the Pacific was completed exactly 75 years ago.

Almost a decade had passed since the first airplane trip across the Atlantic, but so far nobody had taken a plane across the Pacific. The trip was the dream of Charles Edward Kingsford-Smith (1897-1935), an Australian pilot who shot down several German planes during the First World War. He became interested in marathon airplane trips at least as early as 1919, and he spent much of the 1920s trying to create interest in a trip across the Pacific. To make a living -- and to raise money for his transpacific trip -- he worked as a stunt pilot and an airmail pilot.

By the mid-1920s, Kingsford-Smith's dream was taking shape. He had a copilot who was also a good business advisor. He had an aircraft, a Fokker trimotor monoplane, which Kingsford-Smith dubbed Southern Cross (the nickname for the Australian flag). And he had already set a flight record -- for the fastest airplane trip around Australia's circumference. (It took him just over ten days, half the time of the previous record.)

Finally, with three other crew members, Kingsford-Smith started his airplane trip across the Pacific on the last day of May in 1928. The first leg took them from Oakland to Hawaii, a flight of more than 27 hours. The second leg, from Hawaii to Fiji, was the longest part of the trip -- and in fact, it was the longest flight over open ocean that anyone had ever made. It took more than 33 hours, often in difficult conditions. With the third leg of the trip, which brought them to Australia on June 9, 1928, they had crossed the Pacific.

In total, their trip took over 83 hours, and they flew more than 7,000 miles -- over twice the time and distance of Lindbergh's flight.

Kingsford-Smith and his Australian copilot, Charles T. P. Ulm, both remained involved in aviation, and both died in plane crashes in the mid-1930s. The two other crewmembers on the historic transpacific flight of Southern Cross -- the navigator and radio operator, both American -- each retired and lived to be nearly 80 years old.

Related links:

• Click here and here to read much more about Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith (he was eventually knighted) and the crew of Southern Cross.

 

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