Sir Ross Macpherson Smith

Australian pilot

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July 23, 2026

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Sir Ross Macpherson Smith was an Australian aviator who, along with his brother Sir Keith Macpherson Smith, achieved the first flight from England to Australia. They departed from England on November 12, 1919, and landed in Darwin, Australia, on December 10, 1919, in a Vickers Vimy biplane. Both brothers were subsequently knighted. Ross Macpherson Smith also served in World War I with the Australian Flying Corps and made an earlier flight from Cairo to Calcutta.1

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Sir Keith Macpherson Smith and Sir Ross Macpherson Smith
…Royal Air Force (1917–19), while Ross started with the Australian Light Horse in Gallipoli and Sinai until he learned to fly in Egypt in 1916. He spent the last two years of the war in the Australian Flying Corps in Palestine. Ross made the first flight from Cairo to Calcutta,…
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…Royal Air Force (1917–19), while Ross started with the Australian Light Horse in Gallipoli and Sinai until he learned to fly in Egypt in 1916. He spent the last two years of the war in the Australian Flying Corps in Palestine. Ross made the first flight from Cairo to Calcutta,…
Read More