Smithy's Southern Cross Kit Card

thingiverse

The Southern Cross was made famous by Australia's Charles Kingsford Smith's record-breaking flights. (First non-stop crossing of the Australian mainland, Trans-Pacific flight, England to Australia air race).[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cross_(aircraft)) The aircraft is now preserved in a glass-walled memorial at Brisbane airport. In around 1966, my family visited the memorial. I'm not sure how it worked, but we had a private tour inside the aircraft. It left a lasting impression on me. How could such a dangerous journey be made in something so primitive? I remember the pilot's seat particularly, like a wicker chair I'd expect to see at grandma's house. The moon landing was only three years away; I was a child of the space age. Then I saw primitive technology, but I now see parallels. Both were long, dangerous pioneering journeys whose success led to changes in what humanity imagined possible. (We can fly around the world and to the moon). Both used new technologies untested over great distances. Though the trip by an Aussie in a rebuilt second-hand aircraft led pretty quickly to transnational airline routes and international travel, on the other hand, it took 400,000 Americans to build Apollo. Yet, they haven't even managed a second go at it, let alone have tourists on mars.