To be located in the Adelaide Airport Terminal forecourt, the new exhibit will highlight the internationally significant aircraft and the extraordinary achievements of the crew – South Australian brothers Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith, and their mechanics, South Australian Wally Shiers and Jim Bennet from Victoria. Displayed in an auditorium with interactive story panels, projected photographs and films, and displays of personal keepsakes and mementos—locals and visitors will get close to the Vimy for the first time in years.

Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes hatched the idea of a Great Air Race while flying between England and France for the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. He offered a £10,000 prize for the first Aussie airmen to fly from London to Darwin in a British-built plane. The catch? They had to land on home soil within 30 days. Six Australian crews took up the challenge, four led by South Australian men. Between October and December 1919 they took flight from Hounslow bound for the other side of the world.

During the flight they passed through the world’s climatic zone, and the weather threw everything at them—from Italy to Indonesia, Crete to Calcutta—people came to their aid. In Pisa, thirty Italian mechanics worked to get the six-tonne plane free of sludge after an overnight downpour. In Ramadie, near Baghdad, 50 Indian cavalrymen stood sentry over the plane all night, using their weight to prevent her from busting up or being blown away by a raging desert sandstorm. In Surabaya, Indonesia, villagers took the bamboo matting walls from their homes and ‘came streaming in every direction’ to lay a 300m runway over soft mud that had threatened to entrap the Vimy.

In 2022 the Vimy finds a new home, in a location befitting its historical significance, where countless travellers will experience the wonder of the machine up close, learn of the Smith Brothers’ feats of navigation, the endurance of the crew and ultimately discover South Australia’s significant contribution to world aeronautical history. The History Trust is proud to play a part in securing this piece of history’s future for South Australia.

More information.

Photo: Side view of the Vickers Vimy in a field. State Library of South Australia

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