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Aviation History
1921
1921 - 0171.PDF
MARCH 10, 1921 THE AUSTRALIAN PIONEERS AT THE CECIL LAST Thursday an important gathering took place at the Cecil Hotel, at the invitation of Messrs. Vickers, Ltd., Messrs. Rolls-Royce, Ltd., Messrs. Shell-Mex, Ltd., and Messrs. C. C. Wakefield and Co., Ltd., to welcome Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith back to England after their historic flight from England to Australia, in the success of which each of these four great business concerns shared. Mr. Douglas Vickers, M.P., presided, and Sir Frederick H. Sykes, Controller-General of Civil Aviation, attended to present the Air Force Crosses to Capt. Stanley Cockerel! andt Capt. F. Crossley Broome, and Air Force Medals to Mr.C. Corby and Sergt.-Maj. J. Wyatt, which were awarded in connection with the South African flight. In addition it fell to Sir Frederick Sykes to hand to Sir Ross Smith and Sir Keith Smith handsome presents from Messrs. Rolls-Royce, C. C. *^v...keneld and Shell-Mex. The Chairman, proposing the health of the guests, after detailing the enormous difficulties encountered by the two pioneers and their mechanics in their epoch-making journey to Australia, said that Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith, with inadequate machines (for, after all, the Vickers-Vimy they used had been originally designed for war purposes) had proved for all time that inter-communication by air between all parts of the Empire was practicable. Their journey was of far more significance than voyages to the North and South Pole. Some time or other, when the nation began to take a little more interest in aviation, they would see the effect of that trip in a properly organised postal service between England and Australia. These gentlemen had now undertaken further missionary work to further the good cause by showing the public through their lectures and photographs, that there was a real use lor the Empire of aviation besides mere military requirements, and he hoped they would incidentally glean much profit, in addition to satisfaction, for their admirable scheme of lectures. Lord Herbert Scott supported the toast, and said he felt honoured in being able to be joint hosts to honour their guests, as the Rolls-Royce Co. had the privilege of supplying the engine to the machine built by Messrs Vickers, Ltd., who were the generous promoters of the great adventure. That engine was not a special engine, but an ordinary war engine. Had there been time they would have been willing to design and instal an engine suited to the job. It was therefore specially plucky for Sir Ross and his brother to undertake the flight under the conditions. Lord Herbert then, emphasised the wonderful work of the two mechanics who accompanied the pilots and quoted some incidents in illustration of their wonderful resourcefulness. It was due to them, he said, and they should have them in their mind when they drank the health of their guests that day, in honour of the enormous amount of devilling which they had to endure to bring the flight to a successful issue. It was, he said, sad to think that in 1921 the country was full of apathy with regard to flying. He wished that his own old branch of the service had not again been put in scarlet and gold, and that some of the money could have been devoted to aviation. Sir Ross Smith thanked their hosts for their reception. But in their honours he thought it was right to include Messrs. Vickers, Ltd., who had made it possible with their machine to accomplish the flight. They had only about three weeks to arrange matters. There was also Mr. Cates of the Shell- Mex Company, who undertook to see that their fuel should be in readiness for them throughout the route, and although he doubted it being possible to arrange this, they found that in every instance that their fuel was waiting for them, even at the smallest place. As to the Rolls-Royce engines, hi could not speak highly enough of them. He must thank Mr. Royce for their perfection. At times, when they went through their worst experiences, the only happy things were these engines. They never failed them once. He looked forward to an early establishment of regular services. He looked forward to the time, and he was sure that it would come very soon, when they would have a machine flying from this country to Australia once a week, and not only to Australia but to every other part of our dominions. Sir Keith Smith, who also responded, reiterated the thanks of his brother. lie would say, however, that they owed a large measure of thanks to the officials of the Air Ministry, who gave every assistance to them throughout their flight at the various aerodromes. Sir Keith then gave some in- stances of their weird experiences which, except for the native assistance, they would never have got through, even by now. Amongst the incidents he mentioned, was one of a landing in a pond in Siam. The authorities immediately came to their assistance with 200 convicts from a local prison, all of them adorned with leg-chains and most of them reputed murderers. But they worked with such good will preparing a path that the machine was enabled to proceed the following day. It was not a case of two officers and two sergeants on that trip, he said. It was purely team work. They were simply four Australians co-operating together. In illustra- tion of this he narrated how, when making a landing on Singapore racecourse, there was some danger of over-shooting, owing to the nature of the approach, over hills, and the cir- cumscribed area of the racecourse. On touching land he looked round to see how things were going, and found that Sergeant Bennett, while in mid-air, had climbed on to the tail of the machine to ensure that the skid came into play in time to prevent disaster. Sir Robert Waley Cohen, K.B.E., of the Shell-Mex Com- pany, who proposed the toast of Imperial Air Routes, said that in spite of the present breakdown of British civil aviation, he was convinced that the Imperial air routes were going to be a great progressive factor in consolidating our Empire. He thought the present position was merely an episode, and would soon pass. Civil aviation would soon redeem itself, and would go forward and become a great industry in the near future. He very much doubted if there were any other new industry which could have gone forward under present conditions. Even those industries which had a solid and old foundation had the greatest difficulty in carrying on. No industry, he considered, should be dependent on Government control^ but aviation at such a time as this possibly needed temporary assistance ; but that would be only a passing phase, and in the end he was confident of the permanent success of the great science. Sir Charles Wakefield, who supported the toast, opened with a few humorous references, and said that their guests' wonderful feat had put the most exuberant invention of a Jules Verne into the shade. " There is one aspect of their achievement which to my L m a H H H H E S a H H H S BEHBHHSSHHBSS A group of articles presented to Sir Ross Smith, Sir Keith Smith and the mechanics. The model of the Vickers-Vimy machine and the clock were for Sir Ross and Sir Keith respectively, from Messrs. Shell-Mex, Ltd.; the wrist-watches were from Messrs. Vickers, Ltd.; the two other watches—from Messrs. C. C. Wakefield—the two gold cigarette cases and the two silver cases—from Messrs. Rolls- Royce, Ltd.—were for Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith and their two mechanics respectively. 171
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