Beaufighter – Aviation Historical Society of Australia

DerekB30/09/202319/11/2023

Aviation Heritage Vol. 54 No. 3 (September 2023) Contents Listing

The latest quarterly AHSA journal – Aviation Heritage – has recently been posted to members. The contents of all articles are listed below: Aviation...

1895 Sir Wilmot Hudson Fysh KBE, DFC was born on 7 January 1895 at Launceston, Tasmania, son of Frederick Wilmot Fysh, merchant, and his wife Mary, daughter of Henry Reed. Fysh was an aviator and businessman, founder of the Australian airline company Qantas. Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography.

1931 Guy Lambton Menzies made the first solo crossing of the Tasman Sea, flying an Avro 616 Sports Avian IV-A G-ABCF named Southern Cross Junior. Menzies flew from Mascot Aerodrome, New South Wales and made landfall at La Fontaine Swamp, Hari Hari, Westland, on New Zealand’s South Island. The airplane flipped over on landing, after a flight of 11 hours, 45 minutes, but Menzies was unhurt. Concerned that aviation authorities would prevent his flight, Menzies had said that his destination was Perth, Western Australia. Source: The Life of Guy Menzies: The Forgotten Flyer by Max Wearne

1933 Herbert John Louis "Bert" Hinkler AFC, DSM, died on 7 January 1933 when his de Havilland Puss Moth CF-APK crashed in the Tuscan Mountains in Italy in an attempt to break the flying record from England to Australia. The crashed plane and Hinkler's body were found on the northern slopes of Pratomagno in the Apennines between Florence and Arezzo, Italy, on 27 April. He had survived the crash and died outside the wreckage. On Mussolini's orders he was buried in Florence with full military honours. Source: Aviation Heritage Vol 52 No 1 March 2021