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During another of Smithy’s pioneering flights in the Southern Cross, one of the engines died and another had almost used up all its fuel, although the engine itself was still running. They were still several hours from Sydney, so Gordon Taylor crawled out onto the wing to milk oil from the dead engine for use in the engine that was still functioning.
Curator’s notes
Sir Gordon Taylor’s story is narrated by an ABC announcer. This most famous of aviation exploits won Sir Gordon a George Cross medal and was later recorded for posterity when he recreated his daring feat for the feature film Smithy (1946). This documentary uses footage from that feature film to tell the story. The dramatic reconstruction is extremely effective, to the point where we could believe we were watching the real thing.
It’s fascinating that so much of the early history of aviation was captured on film. Both industries began at around the same time and attracted the same sort of swashbuckling characters.
This ABC program was directed by the journalist Cecil Holmes, one of the great pioneers of Australian documentary filmmaking, and produced by Kip Porteous, head of the ABC’s film department during its earliest days.
