G-AUIX Ryan B.1 Brougham
(c/n 148)
The rare image above comes from the
John Hopton collection and depicts G-AUIX at RAAF
Base Richmond near
Sydney in October 1928 on the eve of its departure on a record attempt
to
fly to
England. It was named 'Spirit
of Australia' by its owner T.E. Rofe of Sydney who had just
imported it from US
that same month. Clearly it was fashionable in those days
to name Ryan B.1s
'Spirit of
something-or-other";. Anyway, the aircraft departed
Richmond on 30 October and
left Wyndham on 5
November. The crew consisted of air force pilots S. J. Moir and
H.C. Owen
accompanied by Australian
adventurer and photographer Frank Hurley but the record attempt
ended with a crash on
26 November at Athens, Greece. Moir and Owen returned from
England
to Australia in March the
following year in the big Vickers Vellore G-EBYX and after being dam-
aged in a forced
landing in North Africa they finally reached the Australian coastline
on 18 May
1929 only to have engine trouble
approaching Darwin, resulting in damage in a forced landing at
the Cape Don Lighthouse on
Melville Island. The Ryan was officially stricken from the
Australian
register on December
31, 1928. I suspect the photo from my own collection
(below) was also
taken at Richmond, and
would appear to feature Moir and Owen in addition to a well dressed
mechanic and a
boffin-looking type.
At the foot of the page is an
image gleaned from the Sydney Morning Herald for 16 October 1928
at the christening ceremony
wherein the Ryan was named "Spririt of Australia" on 15 October of
that year by Mr. T.E.
Rofe.
