Smithy The Life of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith
London: Little, Brown and Company, 1998. Large octavo, hardcover, xvi, 416 pp., plates and maps on front endpaper and rear endpaper. A fine copy in a fine dust-jacket. For seven years this small man of craggy face, rapid wit, and broad grin was one of the most revered figures in Australia, his epic and dangerous journeys in fragile aeroplanes followed on radios around the world. Rising to international celebrity in the 1920s - when many of the world's oceanic routes were still unflown, when aircraft were primitive and accurate navigation systems did not exist - 'Smithy' piloted the first flights across the Pacific in both directions, traversed the Tasman Sea and made the first successful westbound crossing of the Atlantic. Item #1717
ISBN: 0316643084
Price (AUD): $45.00