{"id":7746265,"date":"2026-07-29T13:29:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/kingsford-smith-southern-cross-first-trans-pacific-1928\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T13:32:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:32:55","slug":"kingsford-smith-southern-cross-first-trans-pacific-1928","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/es\/kingsford-smith-southern-cross-first-trans-pacific-1928\/","title":{"rendered":"The Australian Who Was First to Fly the Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<p>In the spring of 1928 the Pacific Ocean was still, in aviation terms, a blank. No one had ever flown an aircraft across it. The distances were monstrous, the weather unknowable, and the navigation \u2014 over thousands of miles of empty water with no landmarks \u2014 bordered on guesswork. Then a stocky, grinning Australian named Charles Kingsford Smith pointed a Dutch-built trimotor called <em>Southern Cross<\/em> out over the water at Oakland, California, and flew it all the way to Brisbane. It would be the first trans-Pacific flight in history.<\/p>\n<p>It took eighty-three hours in the air, three exhausting legs, and a violent storm that nearly finished them off. When it was over, &ldquo;Smithy&rdquo; and his crew had done something no one had managed before: they had made the first trans-Pacific flight and crossed the world&rsquo;s largest ocean by air.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;border-radius:8px;padding:20px;margin:24px 0;\">\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 10px 0;font-weight:700;font-size:18px;color:#222;\">Quick Facts: The First Trans-Pacific Flight<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px;line-height:1.7;\">\n<li><strong>Aeronave:<\/strong> Fokker F.VIIb\/3m <em>Southern Cross<\/em>, three Wright J-5 Whirlwind engines<\/li>\n<li><strong>Multitud:<\/strong> Charles Kingsford Smith (pilot), Charles Ulm (co-pilot), Harry Lyon (navigator, US), James Warner (radio, US)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ruta:<\/strong> Oakland &bull; Hawaii &bull; Fiji &bull; Brisbane<\/li>\n<li><strong>Distance:<\/strong> ~7,400 miles (11,900 km) in about 83 flying hours<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fechas:<\/strong> Departed 31 May 1928; landed Brisbane 9 June 1928<\/li>\n<li><strong>Reception:<\/strong> ~25,000 at Brisbane; 300,000 in Sydney the next day<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A secondhand plane and other people&rsquo;s money<\/h2>\n<p>El <em>Southern Cross<\/em> had a complicated past before Smithy ever flew it. The Fokker trimotor had been built for the polar explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins, damaged, rebuilt, and eventually sold to Kingsford Smith. Repairs swallowed his money, so the aircraft was bought by Californian oil man George Allan Hancock, who then loaned it back to the crew for the crossing. Kingsford Smith fitted it with three reliable Wright J-5 Whirlwind radials and enough fuel tankage to attempt the impossible.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"margin:24px 0;\"><img data-opt-id=1249159241  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/southern-cross-fokker-fvii-trimotor.jpg\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:8px;\" alt=\"Southern Cross, the first trans-Pacific flight aircraft \u2014 a Dutch-designed trimotor with an enormously thick cantilever wing, the same layout that carried other record flights of the 1920s.\"><figcaption style=\"font-style:italic;font-size:14px;color:#666;margin-top:8px;text-align:center;\">The Fokker F.VIIb\/3m Southern Cross \u2014 a Dutch-designed trimotor with an enormously thick cantilever wing, the same layout that carried other record flights of the 1920s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Kingsford Smith was not a novice adventurer. A Gallipoli veteran and former Royal Flying Corps pilot, he had barnstormed, flown airmail, and chased records for years. The Pacific was simply the biggest prize left.<\/p>\n<div style=\"display:flex;align-items:center;background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px;margin:24px 0;border-radius:8px;\">\n<div>\n<p style=\"font-size:17px;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 8px 0;color:#222;line-height:1.5;\">&ldquo;Hello, Aussies!&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0;font-weight:600;color:#1565c0;\">Charles Kingsford Smith<span style=\"font-weight:400;color:#666;\"> \u2014 Pilot and commander, Southern Cross<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>That cheerful greeting \u2014 called out as he stepped from the cockpit at Brisbane&rsquo;s Eagle Farm \u2014 became one of the most famous lines in Australian history. But getting there had been anything but cheerful.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Three legs across an empty ocean<\/h2>\n<p>The first leg, Oakland to Wheeler Field in Hawaii, ran 2,406 miles and took over 27 hours. The second \u2014 Hawaii to Suva, Fiji \u2014 was the killer: 3,167 miles of open Pacific, the longest over-water flight yet attempted, ending at the first airplane landing ever made in Fiji. The crew flew for more than 34 hours, much of it blind, hand-flying through rain with the radio failing and the instruments their only guide.<\/p>\n<div style=\"max-width:100%;margin:24px 0;\">\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"><iframe style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AJxhuF18jHw\" title=\"YouTube video\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-style:italic;font-size:14px;color:#666;margin-top:8px;\">British Path\u00e9 newsreel marking the Southern Cross and Kingsford Smith&rsquo;s record-breaking flights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The final leg from Fiji to Brisbane brought the worst of it: a violent tropical storm, lightning throwing the compass into chaos, the trimotor pitched around and forced down to just a few feet above the waves. Kingsford Smith later described the fury of that weather in blunt terms.<\/p>\n<div style=\"display:flex;align-items:center;background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px;margin:24px 0;border-radius:8px;\">\n<div>\n<p style=\"font-size:17px;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 8px 0;color:#222;line-height:1.5;\">&ldquo;The best indication I can give you of the fierceness of the storm is the fact that half an inch was sheared off our propellers.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0;font-weight:600;color:#d32f2f;\">Charles Kingsford Smith<span style=\"font-weight:400;color:#666;\"> \u2014 Recalling the storm of the Pacific crossing<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>They flew out of it, found the Australian coast, and put down at Eagle Farm at 10:50 in the morning on 9 June 1928. The crowd was enormous. The next day they flew on to Sydney and landed in front of some 300,000 people.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"margin:24px 0;\"><img data-opt-id=833749050  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/kingsford-smith-ulm-mascot-1928-scaled.jpg\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:8px;\" alt=\"Kingsford Smith (left) and co-pilot Charles Ulm after the trans-Pacific flight. The pair would go on to found an Australian airline together.\"><figcaption style=\"font-style:italic;font-size:14px;color:#666;margin-top:8px;text-align:center;\">Kingsford Smith (left) and co-pilot Charles Ulm after the trans-Pacific flight. The pair would go on to found an Australian airline together.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Knight of the sky<\/h2>\n<p>The flight made Kingsford Smith a national hero and an international celebrity. He was made an honorary Air Commodore of the Royal Australian Air Force, awarded the Air Force Cross, and later knighted. With Ulm he founded Australian National Airways, and he kept breaking records \u2014 the first trans-Tasman flight to New Zealand, an England\u2013Australia dash, and more.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"margin:24px 0;\"><img data-opt-id=1222853864  data-opt-src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/charles-kingsford-smith-portrait.jpg\"  decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20100%%20100%%22%20width%3D%22100%%22%20height%3D%22100%%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%%22%20height%3D%22100%%22%20fill%3D%22transparent%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:8px;\" alt=\"Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, around 1930. To Australians he was simply &ldquo;Smithy.&rdquo;\"><figcaption style=\"font-style:italic;font-size:14px;color:#666;margin-top:8px;text-align:center;\">Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, around 1930. To Australians he was simply &ldquo;Smithy.&rdquo;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>His luck ran out in November 1935. Flying the Lockheed Altair <em>Lady Southern Cross<\/em> from India toward Singapore on a night leg, Kingsford Smith and co-pilot Tommy Pethybridge vanished over the Andaman Sea. He was 38. The original <em>Southern Cross<\/em> survived him and is preserved today in a purpose-built memorial at the Brisbane airport that bears his name.<\/p>\n<div style=\"max-width:100%;margin:24px 0;\">\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"><iframe style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/60ScMqVfF60\" title=\"YouTube video\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-style:italic;font-size:14px;color:#666;margin-top:8px;\">The preserved Southern Cross on display at the Kingsford Smith Memorial, Brisbane Airport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"max-width:100%;margin:24px 0;\">\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"><iframe style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ujJ5rk5PJS0\" title=\"YouTube video\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-style:italic;font-size:14px;color:#666;margin-top:8px;\">A closer look at the Southern Cross and the memorial that houses the aircraft that crossed the Pacific.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"font-style:italic;color:#666;margin-top:24px;\">Sources: This Day in Aviation; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nma.gov.au\/defining-moments\/resources\/charles-kingsford-smith\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Museum of Australia<\/a>; State Library of Queensland; Aces Flying High. Distances and times per contemporary records.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px;margin:28px 0;border-radius:8px;\">\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 10px 0;font-weight:700;color:#222;\">Related on Afterburner<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px;line-height:1.8;\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wiley-post-first-solo-around-the-world-pressure-suit\/\">The One-Eyed Pilot Who Circled the Globe Alone<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/pacific-clipper-round-the-world-1941-1942\/\">The Pan Am Clipper That Flew Home the Long Way<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/beryl-markham-first-woman-atlantic-east-west-1936\/\">The Woman Who Flew the Atlantic the Hard Way<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1928 Charles \u201cSmithy\u201d Kingsford Smith flew the Fokker trimotor Southern Cross across the Pacific \u2014 7,400 miles and 83 hours no one had ever crossed by air before.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":7746034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,666],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7746265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-history-and-legends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - 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