1919 England to Australia Air Race

On 19 March 1919 Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes announced a competition, with a prize of £10 000, for the first Australian aviators to fly from England to Australia within 30 days .

South Australian brothers Ross Smith (pilot) and Keith Smith (navigator), with engineers Walter Shiers (SA) and James Bennett (Vic), were the first successful crew.

In 2019, the centenary year of the prize-winning flight, we celebrate them and their significant achievement which paved the way for postal and commercial flights to Australia.

epicflightcentenary.com.au

A memorial building at Adelaide Airport commemorates the first official flight from England to Australia – the Air Race of 1919 with Adelaide brothers Ross and Keith Smith. The restored Vickers Vimy converted bomber (Registration G-EAOU) flown by the famous aviators is housed inside the building for public display.

Visit the Vickers Vimy Exhibition

The epic long distance flight was made just 16 years after the Wright Brothers flew the first-ever powered aircraft.

The Vimy crew set out from Hounslow, London on November 12, 1919, and reached Darwin 28 days later to claim the £10,000 Commonwealth Government prize as the first Australians to fly from England to Australia in less than 30 days. The Smith Brothers were knighted by His Majesty, George V, on December 22, 1919. Sir Ross was born at Semaphore and Sir Keith in North Adelaide.

Flying with the Smith Brothers on their epic journey were mechanics Sergeant J. M. Bennett of St Kilda, Victoria, and Sergeant Wally Shiers of Stepney, SA. Both mechanics received bars to their Air Force medals and promoted to the rank of Lieutenant.

View the trailer of The Greatest Air Race (one-hour documentary presented by former NASA astronaut Andy Thomas, produced 2019).

Journalist and writer Lainie Anderson is South Australia’s Epic Flight Centenary 2019 Program Ambassador. 
Read her Churchill Fellowship report.