14.000 Miles gives take-off time of 7 am, flight
time 4 hours 15 minutes, distance as 230 miles, 370 km. The navigation this time
simply consisted of following the railway line.
From
the GPO Mr E J Young organised weather reports to be sent early in the morning
to Narromine.
Three escort aircraft met the Vimy near Richmond, where NSW Government had
established a School of Aviation – two Curtiss ‘Jenny’ aircraft from the school
and an Avro 504 belonging to the
Australian Aircraft and
Engineering Company.
Flight Lieutenant Le Grice led the formation and Flight Commander Leslie Holden
DFC flew on the starboard side, with the Avro aeroplane
on the port side, carrying
a cinematographer. Ross Smith had negotiated that after taking pictures of the
approach to Sydney, the escort aircraft would break away. The Vimy would fly out
over the coast and enter Sydney through the heads and fly around the city, ‘thus
affording opportunity for every citizen to witness the flight’.
t
appears that the Smiths asserted some control over matters of publicity. This
advertisement appeared in the Brisbane
Telegraph
on February 13.
At
Mascot, the Prime Minister, William Morris Hughes, was joined by aldermen of
Mascot, members of the Australian Flying Corps, relatives, friends, and others.
(The Smith brothers’ parents had arrived from Adelaide a few days before).
Detailed plans were in hand: the general public were to be
kept in a fenced area 300 yards away
from the landing site until the landing was complete, then the aircraft would be
brought nearer the crowd so that they could view it in an orderly fashion: Mr J
S Cormack, of the Premier's Department, in charge of the event, promised that
any trespassers in these matters would risk ‘serious consequences’. Perhaps the
Vimy would be forced to land elsewhere if the crowd was unruly.
Motor
traffic between Mascot and the city was to be controlled by traffic police under
the supervision of Superintendent A Edward, and as the approach to the airfield
was through a narrow, very rough lane, only a few approved vehicles could enter.
Members of the forces, in uniform, would be allowed in. Special trams would be
run.
Indeed, the whole city turned out to
welcome the Vimy. ‘Crowds gathered at every vantage point. Seats on roofs and at
windows sold up to a guinea each’. People boarded ferries early in the morning
and stayed on them until the aircraft flew up the harbour. A great crowd
assembled at the General Post Office, where progress reports were posted.
'Passed over Katoomba at 9.43' was a message which sent the crowds scurrying to
vantage points. Cheers went up from the people massed on the roofs as the
machine came into sight.
With three escorting machines, the
aircraft was spotted from the city at 10 30 am and was overheard five minutes
later.
Coming in from the heads, and flying
very low, the machine flew around the harbour and the city. People cheered,
ferry boats whistled, the bells rang, and ‘the air rang loud with rejoicing’.
As they flew over the city the aviators
dropped coupons advertising tea made by blind ex-servicemen, then landed safely
at Mascot aerodrome at 11 10. They were then transported to the Town Hall where
Alderman Brookes praised their achievement, and Ross replied that they had the
honour of making the flight and that many others could have done it if given the
opportunity.
Circular Quay, Bennelong Point and the Botanic
Gardens.
Film
of the arrival was on view at the Haymarket theatre that evening. Castrol oil
was conducting a big advertising campaign, proclaiming that the aircraft had
used their oil throughout, and the airmen had ordered a stockpile of 150 gallons
for their Sydney stopover. The Kodak salon in George Street advertised Hurley’s
photographs. On Monday 16 February the airmen signed innumerable autograph books
and visited the Premier and the Governor in the afternoon.
Vickers Vimy at Mascot Airfield. Photo courtesy the State Library of New South Wales