Books reviewed by Payl Talbot - Charles Kingsford Smit and Those Magnificent Men

Charles Kingsford Smith and Those Magnificent Men

by Peter FitzSimons
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia
RRP$49.99 (679pp; 240mm x 185mm)

Australians will be thankful to Peter FitzSimons in the future for reminding them of some of the “greats” of their history, both people and events. Those whom he has written about may not be the most obvious, but they bear the telling of some great stories.
FitzSimons has written with passion, humour and realism about some significant characters in our recent and more distant past. People such as Steve Waugh, John Eales and Nick Farr-Jones drawn from his sporting passions of recent times, together with Les Darcy, have all received the probing inquiry of his pen. So too has FitzSimons delved into the wartime history of Kokoda, Tobruk, and Nancy Wake.
But this latest opus exploring Australia’s contributions to the evolution of flight, wrapped around a detailed look at the life of Charles Kingsford Smith may be the most important. Sure, the famous names of Australia’s early pioneers – Smith, Ulm, Hinkler, even Hargrave – have been the subjects of other works. But here, FitzSimons draws the strands of aviation’s pioneers together, acknowledging the contributions each person and organisation made to the flying world we now experience.
 Even though Lawrence Hargrave has received recognition that few Australians receive – he and his work were featured on the first Australian $20 note on the reverse side to Charles Kingsford Smith – little has been written in the popular press about him and his kite flying. In this book, Hargrave receives due credit for the inspiration and invention he gave freely to the inventors of the day. Such pioneers as the Wright brothers, Louis Bleriot and Anthony Fokker drew significant inspiration from Hargrave’s work.
As the book tracks developments in flight, so are future airmen brought into the world. FitzSimons follows the birth and early years of young Charles and, as the Wright brothers first take off in 1903 and the world celebrates Bleriot’s channel crossing flight in 1909, the Kingsford Smith family have their own travails.
It may be that most readers are not aware of Kingsford Smith’s efforts in the 1st World War in the Signals Corps at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. Tantalised by the exploits of those early wartime pilots who flew over his head, he joined the Royal Flying Corps to set out on a journey that would make him world-famous. A successful fighter pilot, he nevertheless internalised the horrors of that war, which may have been the cause of his much later apparent depression.
Concentrating on post-war developments, the author explores the devil-may-care attitude of the pilots who were now without a purpose. “Smithy” quickly gains a reputation in severe contrast to that which he is now revered. Hard drinking risk-taker, Smithy yearns for the adventure of his wartime days, but seems destined to be disappointed. But, considering that developments in flight accelerated only from Hargrave’s advancements with box kites in 1896, contemplating long-distance flights across half the world within 30 years is astounding. The 1920s were marked not only by record-breaking flights, but also by the start-up of an Australian icon, QANTAS.
 Of course, Kingsford Smith was only one pilot the author needed to include. Charles Ulm, Bert Hinkler and other Australian pilots pushed unimagined boundaries. Likewise, Charles Lindbergh’s cross-Atlantic flight provided further evidence that technical developments were allowing pilots to reach world-shaking goals. The risk/reward equation was hard on failures. It seems that, except for Lindbergh, most of the pioneers perished in their quests for greater speed and distance.
Peter FitzSimons writes as his subjects think. His familiarity of language and emotions brings his heroes to life. Readers will relish the journey he takes us on in this fine book.