Hinkler made history in 1928 when he became the first person to fly solo from England to Australia — in just 15.5 days.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00That flight really increased the air-mindedness of the population in Australia.
00:07His Bundaberg hometown established a museum in his honour
00:11and started the Hinkler Memorial Lectures,
00:14drawing on the aviator's early designs.
00:17Bert Hinkler was part of all that early aviation development.
00:22He was in the core of it.
00:24Pilots came from across the world,
00:26including NASA astronauts, who were gifted a piece of Hinkler's glider.
00:32Wrote and told us and sent us an email,
00:34well, I've talked to my mate Dick Scobie.
00:38He's prepared to take it into space with him.
00:43And we said, whacko.
00:45But the launch didn't go to plan.
00:48Obviously a major malfunction.
00:50The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded and seven crew members died.
00:56As part of the recovery effort,
00:58the Hinkler fragment was found floating in the Atlantic Ocean
01:02and returned to Bundaberg by Dick Scobie's widow, June, in 1987.
01:08A wonderful memento here in the Hall of Space Development.
01:15A Bundaberg legacy still shaping the aviation industry.
01:20Bert's long-distance flights really showed that aviation or flying
01:24was the mode of transport for the future.