Aviation History
Darwin has played host to many of aviation's early pioneers. On 10 December 1919 Captain Ross Smith and his crew landed in Darwin and won a £10,000 Prize from the Australian Government for completing the first flight from London to Australia in under thirty days. Smith and his Crew flew a Vickers Vimy, G-EAOU and landed on an airstrip that has now become Ross Smith Avenue.
Other aviation pioneers include Amy Johnson, Amelia Earhart, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Bert Hinkler. The original QANTAS Empire Airways Ltd Hangar, part of the original Darwin Civil Aerodrome in Parap, is now a museum and still bears scars from the bombing of Darwin during World War II.
Darwin was home to Australian and US pilots during the war, with air strips being built in and around Darwin. Today Darwin provides a staging ground for military exercises.
Darwin was a compulsory stop over/check point in the London to Melbourne Centenary Air Race in 1934. The official name of the race was the MacRobertson Air Race. Winners of the great race were Tom Campbell Black and C. W. A. Scott.
The following is an excerpt from Time magazine, 29 October 1934, Volume XXIV, Number 18.
Third Day. Biggest sensation of the race came just before dawn on the third day, when burly Lieutenant Scott and dapper Captain Black flew their scarlet Comet into Darwin. They had covered the last 300 miles over water on one motor, risked death landing on a field made soggy by the first rain in seven months. Said sandy-haired Lieutenant Scott: "We've had a devil of a trip." But they had flown 9000 miles in two days, had broken the England to Australia record of 162 hr. in the unbelievable time of 52hr. 33 min., were only 2000 miles from their goal at Melbourne.
The Australian Aviation Heritage Centre is located approximately 8 km (5 mi) from the City centre on the Stuart Highway and is one of only two places outside the United States where a B52 bomber (on permanent loan from the United States Air Force) is on public display.
Read more about this topic: Darwin, Northern Territory
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)