Trans-Pacific Flight
Now in financial trouble, and with the Lady Southern Cross facing withdrawal of its airworthiness certificate if it did not leave Australia, Kingsford Smith decided to attempt the first eastward crossing of the Pacific Ocean by aircraft, from Australia to the United States.
Kingsford Smith and Taylor departed Archerfield Airport on 21 October 1934, for the reverse journey from that the Southern Cross had made in 1928; Brisbane-Fiji-Hawaii-Oakland. Bad weather in Fiji and the need for extensive repairs to the fuel and oil systems in Hawaii meant the flight took considerably longer than the 1928 flight - 15 days vs 9 - despite the Altair being a much faster aircraft than the Fokker.
After arriving safely in Oakland on 4 November 1934, the Lady Southern Cross was left in the care of Lockheed at Burbank, California for repair, overhaul and storage.
Read more about this topic: Lady Southern Cross
Famous quotes containing the word flight:
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)