This Day in History: 1929-07-10

Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, Harold Litchfield and Tom McWilliams landed at Croydon, London in Fokker F.VIIb/3m ‘Southern Cross’, VH-USU, at 3:20 pm on 10 July 1929 after departing from Derby, WA at 5:40 am on 27 June (and from Sydney on 25 June). The flight set a record time for Australia to England of 12 days, 18 hours. This flight was the completion of the crew’s second attempt to fly from Australia to the United Kingdom, the first of which resulted in the “Coffee Royal Affair” after the aircraft became lost and made a forced landing on the Glenelg River flats in Western Australia. Source: The Age (Melbourne) Thu 11 Jul 1929 Page 9 “SOUTHERN CROSS”