‘Southern Cross’ Replica To Fly At ‘Airshows Downunder Shellharbour’ 2024

A flying-close replica of the Southern Cross has been announced to be part of the flying program at Airshows Downunder Shellharbour 2024.

The Southern Cross was a Fokker FVIIB aeroplane & was famously flown by Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith in 1928 in the 1st ever flight over the Pacific Ocean, beginning on mainland United States at Oakland, California & finishing in Brisbane, Australia. The flight had stops at Hawaii & Fiji, the latter place giving the plane the additional honour of 1st plane to ever land there. During the flight, the world record for longest travelled radio message was broken when a message was sent from the plane, the longer way around the world, to South Africa. This radio message was one of many radio messages which included the 1st paid commercial radio messages sent across the Pacific.

The Southern Cross then made the 1st ever non-stop flight across the Tasman Sea & back between Australia & New Zealand in the same year before, in a separate flight to the United Kingdom, crash landing with no fatalities in the Kimberley of Western Australia in 1929. The undamaged historic aircraft was then donated by Sir Kingsford-Smith to his country & is now on permanent display at Brisbane Airport. In its retirement, it made a starring flying appearance in the 1946 biographical film, Smithy & underwent restoration in 1985.

The replica of the Southern Cross was built as a tribute to its famous pilot during the 1980’s before flying around Australia raising funds for the iconic Royal Flying Doctor Service during the 1988 Bicentenary of European Settlement. It flew until 2002 when a main wheel strut fell off during take-off resulting in 3 metres of its wing tip being damaged. It was acquired by the Historic Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS), based at Shellharbour Airport, in 2010, who restored it to airworthiness, taking its 1st flight since 2002 on 5th December last year.

Using the traditional aircraft construction of steel tubing and timber & an all-wooden wing, it was built to modern standards with heat-shrunk and doped polyester in place of the original Southern Cross‘s Irish linen for the fuselage. Since 1988, it has flown around 555 hours.

The replica is also a world record holder, being the world’s largest flying-close replica. It also holds the Australian record for the largest one-piece wing ever manufactured.

When not flying, the Southern Cross replica is on permanent display at Shellharbour Airport’s HARS Museum. It may make other flights or engine runs at the Museum’s monthly Tarmac Days (the weekend of the 2nd Friday of each month) occasionally.

Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith was knighted in 1932 & 3 years later, disappeared over the Indian Ocean during a speed record attempt for a flight between Australia & the United Kingdom. He has never been found. Sydney Airport, then an aerodrome, was named in his honour a year later in 1936. 23 kilometres south of the air show is the home of the start of one of Kingsford-Smith’s other major achievements: the 1st commercial flight from Australia to New Zealand.

Seven Mile Beach (the long beach at the bottom of the above picture) was essentially Australia’s first commercial international airport. Used in 1933 by Sir Kingsford-Smith, it was the dawn of international commercial air travel in Australia before it eventually shifted north in 1938 to Rose Bay Water Airport on Sydney Harbour, which is still in use today for private charter sight-seeing flights, before shifting to Sydney Kingsford-Smith Airport in the 1960s with the advent of the Jet Age.

A lookout, named in his honour, over Seven Mile Beach from the nearby town of Gerroa is a lasting legacy to this aviation milestone. To visit it, you catch a train from the air show to Kiama, then a connecting train to the next stop of Gerringong. Kiama Coachlines has a bus connecting Gerringong with Gerroa. It is a combined 17-minute walk from Gerringong Railway Station to the connecting bus stop & from the arriving bus stop to the Memorial Lookout. Alternatively, to rail/bus/walk, it is a 26-minute drive from Shellharbour Airport.

Airshows Downunder Shellharbour, now held every 2 years, is on 1-3 March 2024 at Shellharbour Airport. Tickets can be bought here & merchandise can be bought via click & collect (at the event) here.