Jun 3, 2018, 00:00 AM
by
Alliance Airlines
On June 9th 2018 Alliance celebrated the 90th anniversary of the completion of first trans-pacific flight from Oakland, California to Brisbane, Australia. Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith (pilot) and his 3 man crew C.T.P. Ulm (co-pilot), Captain Harry Lyon (Navigator) and James Warner (Radio operator) set out to make the first trans-pacific flight on a tri engine Fokker named the Southern Cross.
The Southern Cross left Oakland, California at 08:53 am on 31 May 1928 bound for Honolulu, Hawaii. It landed at 09:49 am on 2 June and then left on the second leg bound for Suva, Fiji at 05:20 am on 3 June 1928. They landed in Suva’s Albert Park at 2.21pm on Tuesday 4 June 1928 after flying 3138 miles in 34 and half hours. They then completed the final leg arriving at Brisbane’s Eagle Farm Airport at 10:50 the following day, 9 June 1928.
Alliance Airlines’ Fokker 100 VH-FGB, in a special commemorative livery, retraced the final part of that historic flight and landed at Brisbane Airport at 10:50 am, exactly 90 years to the minute of the historic Southern Cross land.