Charles Kingsford Smith's Southern Cross II first flight in 20 years!

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Thanks for watching everyone! FYI this is a re-upload from a few days ago as I had to hide the video again after the embargo was lifted and then reimposed. :)

[@Bad_Karma1968]

🙀

[@bangfi1865]

What a wonderful sight, to see her flying again. I was a paying supporter way back in the 80s I think ! To get her off the ground. Well done 👏.

[@joes6089]

Wrote article following almost same route as Sir Kingsford Smith, from California to Brisbane, flying a Qantaslink 400.

[@joes6089]

"Island Hopping to the Land Down Under"

[@ericjwhitney5020]

An aeroplane that's been in my life since I was a small boy. Good to see it flying again. ❤

[@douglascorley6630]

Beautiful aircraft

[@Marschy85]

I used to race outside to catch a glimpse of this beautiful aircraft as it flew into Parafield airport on many occasions. The sound of those motors was enough to get me outside for a looksee.

[@monostripezebras]

Beautiful aircraft

[@staralliancefan1245]

Great footage and well done HARS!

[@dooglemcfrugal7307]

Well done and thank you for your time and dedication to the project

[@TheCpage66]

So glad to see her finally get in the air!

[@TFuzz58]

My hat goes off to the Team that did the restoration work on this aircraft. I’m exceptionally impressed with how well they built the wing and got the leading edges right on. Well done! Tim

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Agreed! They've done a brilliant job!

[@paulkrapp]

Yep, if you stood behind this plane, your hat would go off! 😀👍🛩

[@jirihamersky6152]

Beautiful plane, beautiful video - as always. Thanks.

[@robmccarthy1018]

Great to see her flying again! We live only about 3 Km from the Parafield airport where she was built but sadly crashed in 2002. I remember her flying just over our roof top with the amazing noise of those 3 radial engines.. It seemed to be going so slowly but gracefully. It was a surprisingly large aircraft for it's time.. Often wondered why the rear stabiliser fin was so small. Hard to fly?

[@JettTyler17]

Thanks for sharing this Paul, I saw it at the HARS on my last day in Australia- good to see it flying again! Also saw the original preserved at Brisbane. ✈

[@WiseGuy02]

I love choppers but wish it buggered off so we could hear more of the Southern Cross engines. Anyway, great to see it flying, thanks for the vid.

[@zorbakaput8537]

I agree bloody chopper spoiled what should have been great! 4k is great even on YT.

[@P61guy61]

Simply AWESOME! Thank you for posting

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@tomquinn5437]

Damn, I like that airplane!

[@newflyer6837]

Smooth footage Paul, great job! Damn that helicopter, though. Blocking out the beautiful noise from those three radials!

[@bahu3065]

Would of been very special to of been able to hear the sound of plane

[@johnt.4947]

Gotta love the sound of those radial engines!

[@stenic2]

It is incredible how thick that wing is! The amount of drag must be enormous!

[@dougshiner9180]

I attended one of the Valley Field Air race events in Tasmania many years ago, and the commentator referred to the wing as a built-in headwind.

[@geraldperyman6535]

Presumably a great amount of lift.

[@DavidSmith-xs3or]

I'd love to see that plane in a period movie. Maybe someone will make an Indiana Jones 30s era action/adventure movie with it. Like a Terry and the Pirates comic strip based movie.

[@paulkrapp]

The wing is internally cantilevered with 1920's tech to eliminate the use of wing struts thus less drag. Yep, that is a thick wing! 😀👍🛩

[@TheHobartAviationFan]

Beautiful!

[@punkworkschannel]

Absolutely beautiful!!!

[@chrisdrake7849]

That big wing, the pull pull cables on the movable surfaces, WOW!

[@edutaimentcartoys]

amazing aircraft video ... wow, ultra 4k video

[@geofftefl]

What a beauty!

[@Rob-vv5yn]

I remember seeing it parked at Napier airport New Zealand on the grass it was doing a tour of the country it was big that thick wing was interesting. Wanted to see it flying and now I have thanks for posting.

[@burchtylerm]

Would love to see a walk around and interior tour if this plane if you get the opportunity, Paul! Great video as always!

[@monty3331000]

Outstanding 🎉🎉🎉

[@cramersclassics]

Fantastic!

[@wiseoldfool]

Some lovely camera and audio work there, my friend. What a beautiful bird (in that German way)!

[@WazzaOz]

How awesome is that !!! 😶

[@ryanlestrangemusic]

So good!!

[@MartintheTinman]

I was in the Air Training Corp and saw this being constructed back in the eighties at Parafield Airfield in South Australia

[@nigelwells1643]

Absolutely fantastic ! I've read a lot about this wonderful aircraft and its thrilling exploits. Incredible to see it flying again. Will she be crossing the ditch sometime ?

[@vady64]

Супер когда такая техника жива и люди которые ухаживают за ней!!!👍👍👍🤝

[@LawerenceSchweitz]

Cool video and a great piece of aviation history

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Many thanks!

[@janetbruce2430]

Great footage

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Thank you kindly

[@hisheroship]

We need to see it landing on Gerroa Beach!

[@Mr-Damage]

Nice video mate, shame about the chopper drowning it out. Gets a like from me.

[@pervertt]

They certainly don't build them like this any more. But there was a time when 3 engined monoplanes ruled the skies. The Junkers 52 and Ford trimotor are probably 2 of the better known examples.

[@FitzArias]

Southern Cross flying past the Moon: can't beat that. Too bad both Smithy and Fokker didnt live to see man reach the moon.

[@koh_ling]

Wow 😮

[@Kneedragon1962]

I should clarify ~ disclaimer. I'm a 61 year old Aussie, living in Brisbane. I have been a fan of and student of aviation since I was 5. I am not a qualified pilot, although I did design and build models as a youth, starting with control line and extending to radio control. The things you notice with the clarity of modern video. 1st thing, I notice the rudder area is about right, but that has 1/3 or less the vertical stab area I'd want to see. That did start to get better after WW1 but they didn't really get it right up until the end of WW2. (As an aside here, look at photo of a Mk1 Spitfire. Now look at a Mk 9 from the middle of the war. Now look at a Mk-19 from the end of, after the invasion. Notice something? The distinctive shape of the Spitfire tail stays the same, but the relative size of it, doubles over the course of the war. Look at the Vertical stabiliser area on an F-86 Sabre. That's about right. Look at a Cessna 172 ~ that's about right. Look at a 737. Now look back at the Southern Cross ... It has enough rudder, (just), but it has about 1/5 as much vertical stabiliser as that airframe should have.) 2nd thing ~ Did they run the control wires for the elevators and rudder down the outside of the aircraft? Bare wires? Yes, they did ... OMG!!

[@paulkrapp]

Cool man, you're my wife's age! 😁👍 The formula that determines the surface area of the vertical stabilizer is in relation to the side surface area of the fuselage behind the center of lift. Please take note of something that is happening to the front of those Spitfires. They kept adding larger engines and increasing the front side area thus the vertical stabilizer had to increase as well. Note that the side surface area on the Fokker is large compared to the area ahead of the spar. The vertical stabilizer is exactly the correct size.

[@Kneedragon1962]

@@paulkrapp~ Paul, thank you for explaining. [chuckle] I still wouldn't like to try a spin recovery .... Look - there are ways of doing it, I know. Gates original Learjet had little strakes added, that grew over the years. They had aesthetics things, the customers buy it because they think it looks sexy, "You flew your Learjet up to Nova Scotia, To see the total eclipse of the sun ~" Those strakes added about as much area again as the top vertical stab. They got to a point around '42 ~ '43 and everybody wanted one of those bubble canopies, but to make that work, you have to cut down the rear fuselage, and then you run into the thing you mentioned, so the vertical fin has to get larger, and / or has to get a diagonal bit stuck onto it, like the P-51 D. Go back to WW1, and most aircraft had a rudder that was the size & shape of a toilet-seat, and only about the end of 1917 did they start to add a little fixed vertical triangle in front of it. [Roll eyes] We are chewing over tiny details. I saw a thumbnail in the last few days, to a AI generated sh1t-show entitled something about the Sopwith Camel, but the aircraft in the thumb-nail sure as f*ck wasn't a camel. We're arguing over the crumbs ~ the banquet has left.

[@paulkrapp]

@@Kneedragon1962 Thanks for responding! I was never arguing, I just enjoy speaking to people from other countries. I also fly model airplanes and ride motorcycles. I have a 1999 Ducati Super Sport 900. I watched one of your sport bike videos. I don't have any sport bike content on my channel because US police are going after KZbinrs that post speeding on public roads. My Dad was an aircraft mechanic for Gerber Products. They had a few Lear Jets over the years. When Lear started increasing the length and diameter of their jets, they needed to add those fins. Dad said that the Lear 35 would yaw back and forth slightly at 45,000ft because of the marginal amount of stabilizer area. The fins in later models such as the Lear 55 cured this problem. It's about 5:00 in the evening there, 1:00 in the morning here. I need to go to bed...cheers mate!

[@tomshiba51]

Good job. However, the chase copter ruined the sound of the actual plane.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

yeah I was a little disappointed too. The same thing happened with my Super Connie footage where someone started a diesel tug just before it landed.

[@FroggyFrog9000]

the chopper is ruining it

[@captmulch1]

I must admit, I got misty ... just beautiful ...

[@Workerbee-zy5nx]

So this is a fokker tri plane? I ts a beautiful bird. Love the name "southern cross" ..🤠👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@PaulStewartAviation]

tri motor. A triplane would have 3 wings :)

[@Workerbee-zy5nx]

@@PaulStewartAviation 10-4 good buddy. 👍

[@WildBillFlysRC]

My Grandfather flew with a Kingsford Rollo Smith in WW2 Avro Lancaster 463 squadron. Sir Charles his father?

[@fatbudgiekillen8997]

Wonderful restoration! What a fun life you have 🛬🛫

[@attonrand96]

I love the optical illusion of the props bending like they are made of rubber. 😂

[@paulkrapp]

You are the only one seeing that. ____________________________________________________Just kidding! 🤣

[@paulkrapp]

Thanks for the info! 😀👍

[@tommiller1315]

Great filming. Why is the centre engine angled down? Maybe to assist take off thrust?

[@paulkrapp]

That is called "down thrust". We angle the engine down a few degrees when the wing is that far above the thrust line. It also helps keep the wing at an optimal angle of attack. If you were to see the plane from above, you would notice that the engine is also angled to the right because engine torque makes the plane yaw to the left.

[@brianmorris8045]

Is there a vid made recently of the interior of the plane, to coincide with that flight? As I can't see in the list of the vids above. It would be nice to see.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Not yet but I hope to get a tour done soon :)

[@randall1959]

Such a small set of tail feathers for such a large wing.

[@paulkrapp]

Hi there! I'm guessing we're close in age. "1959" 😀👍 The formula that determines the surface area of the vertical stabilizer is in relation to the side surface area of the fuselage behind the center of lift. As you can see, the cockpit side area is small and the passenger cabin area is large. Thus, the plane will be stable with a "small" vertical stabilizer. 😎

[@randall1959]

@@paulkrapp I understand that it's right by the formula. It just looks small, especially the rudder

[@paulkrapp]

@@randall1959 You're right, it does look small.

[@randall1959]

@@paulkrapp I got to fly on the EAA Tin Goose several years ago and I loved it

[@kerrygrover2109]

Great work people-congratulations! Isn’t it unusual that when you’re trying to listen to an aircraft,somebody fires up a chopper so you hear almost nothing-Murphy’s law I guess!

[@portnuefflyer]

That wing....looks so "lifty!" Oddly enough, I just read a story by Admiral Bryd about his Fokker flight to the North Pole yesterday, in a 1927 National Geographic.

[@Colin_Holloway]

For all that effort and they couldn't get the Southern Cross constellation on the side of the fuselage correct! I thought the video was reversed for a bit!

[@David_P132]

Chills. Has quite a small fin doesn't it?

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Yep so it has a low cross wind limit. Luckily the wind was OK today

[@egdiryellam68]

It did not "CRASH" in 2002 ----- it was slightly damaged after undercarriage failure.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Ok…

[@jeffball6108]

I can see why the undercart failed if the pilot continues to pirouette on one wheel as he did at the end of the flight.. not great for modern aircraft and a no no for oldies. I remember seeing a training video in the RAAF back in the 60's on that very topic.

[@norberthofmann8391]

Diese noch ezwas ältere Maschine läuft heute noch und unsere Ju 52 wurde aus dem Verkehr gezogen, nur weil es definitiv Pilotenfehler waren die zum Absturz am Säntis geführt haben

[@robertcoleman4861]

👍👍👍👍👍