Early aviators showed the world what Aussies were capable of

Australia’s early aviators showed what we were once capable of.

Alliance Airlines' Fokker 70 painted in special livery marking the 100-year anniversary of the Smith Brothers' historic England to Australia flight.

If the wonderful story of pioneering Australian aviators Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith has largely been lost in the mist of history, then the fate of those who did not survive the Great Air Race of 1919 most certainly has.

Tragically, but perhaps not surprisingly, only two of the six teams entered in the race from England to Australia ever reached Darwin, with the Smith brothers famously covering the distance in just under 28 days.

Another two teams were forced out along the way, dogged by mechanical issues and bad weather, while the remaining two teams were even less fortunate.

In the case of Lieutenants Roger Douglas and James Ross, the men suffered their first setback before the race even started when they had a minor crash prior to takeoff.

Running repairs delayed their crusade for two weeks and, according to Douglas’s fiance, their single-engine Alliance was not fully repaired until the night before departure.

Just a few minutes into the flight on November 13, 1919, the aeroplane lost power, went into a fatal spin and crashed into an apple orchard, killing both airmen instantly.

Another team, made up of heroic World War I pilot Captain Cedric Howell and Lieutenant George Fraser, set off on December 4, 1919 in a single-engine Martinsyde biplane.

They soon ran into bad weather and landed in Dijon, France before flying on to Pisa in Italy where a new tail skid was fitted.

Stops in Naples and Taranto followed but another bout of dreadful weather proved their downfall when an attempted emergency landing at Corfu fell short of the coastline.

Howell’s body eventually washed ashore but Fraser’s remains were never found.

Leading member of the Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith Fund advisory committee, Jim Whalley, said all of the race competitors were heroic Australians who seemed to have been lost to the world: “We should be celebrating them as Australian heroes, taking great pride as a nation, and celebrating what we were once capable of doing.”

The second team to actually finish the race, made up of Lieutenants Ray Parer and John McIntosh, took seven months to complete the distance after constant breakdowns.

Mr Whalley said it only served to highlight the extraordinary nature of the Smith brothers’ feat, with the help of mechanics Wally Shiers and Jim Bennett.

“The thing that really resonates with me is that it was a well-prepared feat. Ross Smith had actually flown the route to India and surveyed parts of it afterwards by ship to work out landing sites because there were no airfields in those days,” Mr Whalley said.

“It wasn’t just gung-ho and good luck. It was genuine entrepreneurial risk-taking but it was informed risk-taking.”

Among those groups working to sustain the story of the Great Air Race and its heroes is Brisbane-based airline Alliance, which will welcome another Fokker 70 to its fleet next month.

Painted in special livery to celebrate the centenary of the race and its winning team, the F70 will recreate the journey of the Smith brothers’ Vickers Vimy, touching down in Darwin on December 10, 100 years to the day of the historic event.

In a further salute to the remarkable achievement, the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame will on Saturday induct Walter (Wally) Shiers and James (Jim) Bennett. The Smith brothers received the same honour in 2012.