Story of "Southern Cross" Trans-Pacific Flight 1928
Sydney: Penlington & Somerville, 1928. Small octavo, original blue decorated cloth, 228 pp, with 35 double-sided photo plates. Some spotting throughout, 'Australia Kingsford Smith's World Flights' stamp pasted on title leaf (below the title), otherwise a well-preserved copy in dust-jacket (small loss on front panel top edge). First edition.
That memorable feat of flying across the Pacific Ocean from California to Australia is vividly recorded in Story of Southern Cross Trans-pacific Flight, which is illustrated with more than seventy photographs.
Charles Kingsford-Smith and Charles Ulm (along with two Americans – Harry Lyon and James Warner) undertook to cross the Pacific Ocean by air on board a three engine Fokker aeroplane which they named the Southern Cross. Smithy and Ulm complemented each other. Indeed, while Charles Kingsford-Smith was a skilled pilot, Charles Ulm was a great planner and had the ability to raise funds which enabled them to make their transpacific flight a reality. On May 31st, 1928, the four men took off from Oakland airfield in California and journeyed to Brisbane.
Although this book was widely distributed after the Australian landing, copies with the dust-jacket are scarce indeed. Item #4064
Price (AUD): $1,500.00