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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1034.PDF
fUGHT International, a April 1964 585 The ill-fated Avro Ten "Southern Cloud," which crashed on a flight from Sydney to Melbourne in 1931 and remained undiscovered for 11 years The Southern Cloud Story THE 27-year mystery of the Southern Cloud, one of the fleet ofAvro Tens operated by Charles Kingsford Smith's originalAustralian National Airways in the early 1930s, was solved in 1958 during construction work on the Snowy Mountains irri- gation and hydroelectric scheme. A striking memorial has been erected at Cooma, headquarters town for the Snowy Mountains Authority, and a full account of the Southern Cloud disaster and its tragic impact on the career of Kingsford Smith is given in Isobel Carter's book* which has just been published in Britain. Australian National Airways Ltd was formed by Charles Kings- ford Smith and Charles Ulm in December 1928 to fly services between Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne and between Sydney and Brisbane. The 450-mile Sydney - Melbourne route crossed the Great Dividing Range, passing near Mount Koscuisko (7,314ft), Australia's highest mountain, and was flown without radio. The aircraft chosen for the ANA fleet were Avro Tens, licence- built and Lynx-powered versions of the Fokker F.VII/3m. Kings- ford Smith and Ulm had a great respect for the three-engined Fokker since their famous transpacific flight in the Southern Cross. On the morning of March 21, 1931, the Southern Cloud took off from Mascot Aerodrome, Sydney, for Melbourne with Travis Shortridge as pilot, ANA trainee Charles Dunneil and six passengers aboard. Shortly after the aircraft had taken off the duty meteoro- logist at Sydney Weather Bureau telephoned ANA to warn that the weather on the Sydney - Melbourne flight would be much more severe than forecast, with a cyclone brewing and Melbourne reporting the worst weather for almost 30 years. There was no way of contacting the Cloud: the aircraft did not reach Melbourne. The search for the missing machine was thorough but unsuccessful, ^nflicting reports that the Cloud had been heard or seen in many ItHO1'Jl?en£loud" by L R- Carter. Published bv Angus and Robertson*•'«. 34-58 Bartholomew Close, London EC1. Illustrated. Price 21s. different areas were received and followed up. Some indications were that the aircraft had overshot Essendon and come down in the sea, but the main efforts were concentrated—correctly, as it transpired—in the high, heavily timbered mountains of the Great Dividing Range. Here the close-packed gum trees are often 100ft tall and the chances of spotting a crashed aircraft are remote. The unsubsidized ANA company was unable to survive the loss of the Southern Cloud, the expense of the search and its aftermath at the time of Australia's 1931 depression. Three months after the disappearance of the Cloud the company ceased its inter-capital services. In December 1934 Ulm attempted to set up a new trans- pacific record in Airspeed Envoy Stella Australis but disappeared over the Pacific. The following November, Kingsford Smith disappeared over the Bay of Bengal on an England - Australia record attempt in the single-engined Altair Lady Southern Cross. The fate of the Southern Cloud remained a mystery until October 26, 1958, when a young carpenter named Thomas Sonter accident- ally came across the wreckage of the aircraft in the thick underbrush of a heavily wooded slope overlooking the Tooma River gorge. It was a Sunday, and Sonter was out taking photographs of the gorge: had he not happened to push his way through that particular patch of undergrowth the aircraft might still be undiscovered. The final chapter in the Southern Cloud story comprised the erection of a memorial to the Southern Cloud occupants and other Australian aviation pioneers by the Lions Club of Cooma. Designed by Andrius Rimka, this concrete building houses parts of the aircraft and a restored Lynx engine and stands adjacent to the Southern Cloud Park in the town of Cooma. The Aviation Pioneers Memorial (below) at Cooma in the Snowy Mountains contains a restored Lynx engine and a number of parts from the wrecked aircraft. Left, Mr Harold Affleck, senior aircraft surveyor for the Department of Civil Aviation in New South Wales, seen with the Lynx. Mr Affleck was an engineer with the original ANA and more recently was responsible for the restoration of "Southern Cross" at Brisbane
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