Outlook AHSA Newsletter November 2023

DerekB30/11/202327/12/2023

The November 2023 edition of Outlook / AHSA News was distributed to members recently.

This edition can be read online in the viewer below.

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1890 Sir Keith Macpherson Smith (1890-1955), airman, was born on 20 December 1890 in Adelaide, first son of Scottish-born Andrew Bell Smith, station manager, and his wife Jessie, née Macpherson, born in Western Australia. In 1897 Andrew Smith became the manager of the Mutooroo Pastoral Co. and Mutooroo station, a property of some 3000 sq. miles (7700 km²). Both Keith and his brother Ross were educated at Queen's School, Adelaide (as boarders), and for two years at Warriston School, Moffat, Scotland, their father's birthplace. Keith and his brother Ross, along with Walter Shiers and James Bennett made aviation history by completing the first flight from England to Australia in 1919. Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography

1928 Australian George Wilkins and American Lieutenant Carl Ben Eielson make the first flight across the Antarctic Peninsula. They use a Lockheed Vega for the 2,100 km flight. Source: Australian Antarctic Magazine

1930 W.L. Pittendrough and S.J. Hamre, employees of the Central Australian Gold Exploration Company, were lost in the desert west of Alice Springs after becoming lost on a flight to Ilbilla, Northern Territory. They were found 21 days later by a RAAF search party 30 miles from their de Havilland Moth VH-UGX. Source: Parnell, N. and Boughton, T., Flypast, A record of aviation in Australia, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1988.

1944

Eight RAAF members (two aircrew and six passengers) perished in the tragic crash of RAAF Lockheed Hudson A16-68 at RAAF Richmond. The aircraft which had previously flown with No 2 Squadron and No 13 Squadron, was on a test flight late in the afternoon at RAAF Richmond. While the aircraft was on finals, it appeared to swing to port and hit powerlines before spinning into the ground and bursting in flames killing all on board. A subsequent court of inquiry found the port engine had failed.

Source: Air Force Association - SA Division