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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1959.PDF
FLIGHT, 8 December •725 mountain peaks in central Crete. Three hours elapsed before he sighted the African coast and flew on cross-desert to Cairo, where awaited a fine reception, and all possible assistance, from old friends in the R.A.F. The pilot's war- time knowledge of the terrain was of great assistance on the next leg, of 4 hr 30 min, to Damascus, since there was low cloud and heavy rain throughout. From Damascus, the Vimy set off for Baghdad on the following day, November 20th, but a head-wind retarded its progress so much that a landing was made at Ramedi. Here a strong gale was blowing ~ with assistance from the 10th Indian Lancers, the aircraft was picketed down for the night. Next morning the crew mended a broken con- trol-wire and pressed on to Basra in fine weather. After six days' continuous flying, they felt the need for a '' rest,'' and therefore spent a day overhauling the Vimy. Two long flights lay ahead. On November 23rd came the 7 hr 50 min leg over desert and mountains, to Bundar Abbas, followed, on the 24th, by a further 8£-hr trip, to Karachi. The next morning, the aircraft made its longest journey—Karachi to Delhi in nine hours. Ross Smith observed: '' During the last three days we had flown a distance of 1,600 miles and spent 25 J hours out of 54 in the air .... Up to this stage everything had gone remarkably well, both with the machine and the engines. The health One of the Vimy's two Rolls-Royce Eagles (each developed350 h.p.) is replaced after overhaul en route. of the cr«w had been excellent and the weather had im- proved." Feeling fatigued, they spent the next day in Delhi working on the aircraft and buying clean clothing. Two more hops, in two successive days, completed the crossing of India—five hours to Allahabad, and five and a quarter hours to Calcutta. On November 29th the Vimy flew from Calcutta across the month of the Ganges to Chittagong, turning down the coast of Burma to Akyab, where the crew met two other airmen attempting the flight to Australia—the Frenchman Poulet and his mechanic. Rangoon saw its first aircraft the next day, when the Vimy landed on the racecourse—"thronged with natives in bril- liant national costumes." From the Siamese authorities came a friendly welcome, and the assistance of mechanics, at Bangkok, the next halt, before which the Vimy success- fully negotiated a cloud-topped 6,000-ft mountain-range. Four Siamese, machines of French manufacture provided an escort for the first 50 miles. After two hours the Vimy flew into a monsoon and was forced to fly at 500ft in driving rain, which at times almost blinded its crew. The trip to Singora took six hours, and it was found, after landing, that the stumps of several trees were still lying on the ground; providentially 'he Vimy had missed them. A head-wind had caused more ilian the estimated amount of fuel to be used, and Ross Smith wired urgently to the Asiatic Petroleum Company it Penang, requesting 200 gallons. He records: "We tied the machine down for Built in a day : this hurriedly improvised runway enabled theVimy to take off from boggy ground at Sourabaya, Java. the night, but at 2 a.m. a heavy storm arose with very heavy rain, and the crew had to turn out and hang on to the machine." All that day the rain continued—"the worst I have ever seen," the pilot said—but, although wet through, the crew used the time profitably in overhauling the engines and repairing the tail skid. They "borrowed" 200 con- victs from the local gaol to clear a path on the airfield, which was in very bad condition. Petrol arrived that evening, and the Vimy was refuelled the following morn- ing. After one unsuccessful attempt, it made a seaplane- like take-off through pools of water six inches deep and flew on to Singapore, which was reached after seven hours. On December 6th, the Vimy left Singapore, flew round a heavy thunderstorm, down 200 miles of densely wooded Sumatra coastline, across the ?ea to Batavia and thence to Kalidjatti. Here the crew were entertained by the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Kalidjatti to Sourabaya was " an uneventful trip, but the scenery was seen to great advantage." Only by great effort were the crew able to leave Sourabaya on the following day. The airfield had been built on soft reclaimed land, in which the Vimy sank soon after landing —almost to lower-wing level. The four airmen, assisted by the local engineer and 200 coolies, spent the rest of the day of arrival laying a trail of bamboo mats on which to tow the biplane to the end of the airfield. At daylight they made a 300 yard bamboo "runway" (consisting largely of native houses demolished during the night) and attempted to take off, but pieces of the wood caught in the tail and diverted the aircraft into soft ground. Again the coolies were called in to heave it back to its starting-place, and the "runway" mats were laced to- gether. This time the attempt was successful, and just after noon—" bamboo flying in all directions from our propellers"—the Vimy set off for the long eastward trip to Bima. Here the landing was uneventful, as was the take-off next morning, for Atamboea, in Timor. Success was now in sight; there remained a final over- water flight to Port Darwin. After two hours' flying on compass bearings the crew were greatly relieved to see the Australian cruiser Sydney- in exactly the position earlier requested, standing by in case of ...need., "We had no wireless on board," said Ross Smith, so we dropped messages in a bottle attached to a parachute made by ourselves, stating that all was going well. That message was picked up. Two hours after leaving the Sydney we sighted Bathurst Island, our first glimpse of Australia. . . ." They landed at Port Darwin at 4.10 p.m. on Wednesday. December 10th, after covering 11,294 miles in 28 days, and at an average air-speed of slightly less than 80 m.p.h. The prize had been won with just over 50 hours to spare. Capt. Ross Smith and his brother received knighthoods shortly afterwards, and their two mechanics ww awarded Bars to their Air Force Medal«
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