Sue’s display has been structured around Ian Mackersey’s book on Charles Kingsford Smith, or as he was known to everyone, Smithy. Smithy learnt to fly during WW1 and went on to be the first person and his aircraft the Southern Cross the first aircraft to circumnavigate the world. He was the first to fly across the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea in 1928 and completed the circumnavigation in 1930 nearly becoming the first to fly from Europe into New York.
Very little mail was carried on the early pioneer flights (typically less than 15 items) due to the need to carry as much fuel as possible. It was carried by favour of the pilots as no postal contracts were in place. Sue covers the period from 1919 to 1935 when he disappeared on a record breaking flight from the UK to Australia.
In addition to the mail carried she showed a large amount of supporting material such as correspondence, tickets and brochures.
We had a wonderful afternoon and extend our warm thanks to Sue for her display.