Story: Australians

The first flight across the Tasman Sea was the 14-hour journey by Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew on 10–11 September 1928. He touched down safely at Wigram aerodrome. Guy Menzies (pictured here) made the first solo flight on 7 January 1931, breaking the flight time by 2½ hours. The flight ended with a forced landing in a Westland swamp. The first regular air service across the Tasman was inaugurated by flying boat on 30 April 1940. It was then a nine-hour flight, but today’s flying time is three hours.