World War 1
Herbert John Hinkler was the quiet achiever of Australian aviation. He was born in 1892 at Bundaberg, central Queensland and from an early age he displayed an interest in aeronautics. By the time he was twenty the diminutive Hinkler had built and flown a series of gliders. In order to advance his aviation career he traveled in England and during World War 1 he served as an air gunner with the Royal Naval Air Service on the Italian Front.
Test pilot
Following the Armistice of 1918 Hinkler settled in England and eventually he became test pilot for A.V. Roe, a leading aircraft manufacturer. He was an interested observer of Ross and Keith Smith’s 1919 England- Australia flight and was determined to emulate their feat but in a totally different manner. Instead of a large aircraft and elaborate preparation he opted for a miniature Baby Avro. It was a basic monoplane design powered by a modest 35hp engine, but it was the genesis of the future light aeroplane.Despite official discouragement Hinkler set off from Croydon on 31 May 1920. He reached Turin non-stop in ten hours, which was a world record for a light aircraft. It was in Iraq that he fell victim to officialdom when authorities there refused him permission to fly over the Iraq desert. Hinkler’s flight had failed but at least he had demonstrated the practicalities of light aircraft.
Later in the year he shipped the Avro to Australia where he made a flight from Sydney to Bundaberg. It was a significant event, for he was able to fulfil a promise to his mother that one day he would fly home in his own aeroplane. He returned to England and continued his career as chief test pilot for Avro. A measure of his ability was his selection as reserve pilot for the 1925 British Schneider Trophy team. This was a prestigious international speed event for seaplanes. It was inaugurated in 1914 by Frenchman Jacques Schneider and following the war it was held every two years. In 1925 it was held at Baltimore but Hinkler’s assistance was not enough to win the trophy for Great Britain.Instead it was won by the United States. The winning pilot was the remarkable Jimmy Doolittle, who rose to the rank of general in World War II.That same year the Avro Avian, a 2-seat biplane of metal construction and fabric covering went into production. Powered by an 80hp Cirrus engine it was capable of flying over 1,000 miles non-stop; as Hinkler demonstrated when he flew from London to Riga in Latvia, a distance of 1,200 miles.
Solo to Australia
On 7 February 1928 he embarked on his record-breaking flight to Australia. It was a great challenge as it represented the first realistic solo attempt. His first stop was Rome, one of many he made through extremes of bitter cold and merciless heat. He crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Tobruk and then on to Basra and the forbidding Arabian Desert. Hinkler reached Karachi on 14 February, setting up a new record from England to India.Apart from a minor repair to an oil tank, the Avian was performing faultlessly. He completed the crossing of the Indian continent and on the next stages to Singapore and Java he experienced conditions of heavy rain and poor visibility.Possibly the most hazardous stage was the final one from Bima, an island east of Java. He was faced with a 600 miles crossing of the lonely Timor Sea.There were no dramas and at 8pm on 22 February Hinkler landed at Darwin, fifteen and a half days after leaving England. His actual flying time was134 hoursor5daysand14hours.The quiet achiever had made the first solo flight from England and the first in a light aeroplane. Awards and acclaim were bestowed on the unassuming Hinkler. These ranged from a triumphal passage around Australia, an honorary rank of squadron leader in the RAAF to an award of the Air Force Cross from H.M King George V. Hinkler’s record stood intact until May 1930 when Charles Kingsford Smith lowered the time to nine days and 22 hours. His machine was also an Avian, which he named ‘Southern Cross Junior’.
In 1930 Hinkler became a manufacturer in his own right when he designed and built a 2-seater wooden amphibian. It was named the Hinkler Ibis and was unique in having its two engines mounted in tandem above the single wing. Only one aircraft was built and after limited use it was stored for many years at his Southampton home. It was finally scrapped in 1959.
Atlantic epic
In 1931 Hinkler set out on the flight of his career, a journey from New York to London. His machine was a DH Puss Moth powered by a 130hp Gypsy Major engine. It did not possess the range to achieve a crossing of the North Atlantic but he achieved his goal with a novel approach to the problem. The Puss Moth also lacked certain equipment required for night flying over The United States, making it necessary to fly direct to Bermuda. It was an 18-hour flight and the first between the two cities. From there he flew south in easy stages from Venezuela to Port Natal on the Brazilian coast.He was then faced with a 3,200 km ocean crossing to Bathurst on the west coast of Africa. Six hours into the flight Hinkler encountered fog and heavy rain, which persisted throughout the entire crossing. His aircraft was not equipped with blind-flying aids, forcing him to fly by compass and his own instincts. So accurate was his course that he made a landfall with an error of just one degree. That stage was the first west/east crossing of the South Atlantic and in the process he made the longest non-stop flight in a light aircraft. Hinkler reached London on 7 December 1931, having flown 16,000 km. to achieve his goal, and in a quite unique manner.
Final flight
But the skies that highlighted Hinkler’s exceptional abilities were about to betray him. In January 1933 he set out in the Puss Moth in an attempt on the England-Australia record. At the time it was held by C.W.A. Scott in a Gypsy Moth in eight days and 20 minutes. On the same day after leaving England Hinkler was reported over the Italian Alps in the vicinity of the Pratamagno Mountains. Following that sighting there was no further news until 1 May when itinerant forestry workers discovered wreckage of the Puss Moth. Nearby was Hinkler’s body.It was a sad finale to his career; one that he pursued with quiet determination and a preference to achieve those goals on his own. In recent years there were inferences of sabotage to the propeller of his aircraft at his last fuel stop, for whatever reason was never explained. The sad fact remained that Australia’s ‘Lone Eagle’ had fallen. Bert Hinkler was later buried in the village cemetery in Pratamagno village.
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