November is Aviation History Month, and what better time to look up at the sky and remember how far we’ve come? In little more than a century, humans went from wobbling a few metres above the sand to circling the globe in a single day. Many of us here at Horsham U3A have lived through a good part of that story, so it’s a great month to share our memories and perhaps learn something new.
Australia's Place in the Sky
For a vast, sparsely settled country like ours, aviation was never just a novelty. It was a lifeline. A few of our proudest moments:
- 1919: Ross and Keith Smith, with their crew, flew a Vickers Vimy from England to Australia in about 28 days, winning a prize of £10,000.
- 1920: Qantas was founded in outback Queensland, and grew into one of the world’s oldest airlines.
- 1928: Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew made the first trans-Pacific flight in the Southern Cross, and the first Royal Flying Doctor Service flight took off from Cloncurry, bringing medical help to people in remote areas.
- 1928: Bert Hinkler flew solo from England to Australia in a small Avro Avian.
For those living on the land, as so many in the Wimmera do, it’s easy to appreciate what it meant to have help arrive from the air.
Watch Our Aviation Video!
To mark the month, we’ve made a video all about the aircraft that changed the world. From the first daring flights to the planes that shrank the globe, see how many you can name before the big reveal. Grab a cuppa, put your feet up and enjoy the flight.