Charles Ulm (c.1928)
Synopsis
This historical footage documents an air show featuring Charles Ulm and two planes: the Southern Cloud and Canberra Pup.
Curator’s notes
Thought to be from around 1928, the year Ulm received his pilot’s licence, this footage shows the early days of aviation. The previous year, Ulm and Charles Kingsford Smith flew around Australia’s rim in just over ten days, breaking the previous 20-day record. In June 1928, Ulm was Kingsford Smith’s co-pilot on the first trans-Pacific flight when they flew from the US to Australia.
Historical footage such as this hints at the challenges early aviation pioneers would have faced. To think of Ulm flying considerable distances in a small plane such as the one seen here is incredible. Ulm perished on a flight in December 1934, a year before Kingsford Smith died during a flight from England to Australia.
The provenance of this material is unknown, although it may have been raw footage used in a newsreel item of the time. Nevertheless, while not showing Ulm in flight, it does give us a visual picture of the man.
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