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Kingsford Smith and his aircraft, Southern Cross, were world famous in the
pioneering days of aviation. The grinning Aussie, once a film stunt man, made
the first flights across the Pacific both ways and the first west-bound Atlantic
crossing, conquering nervous illness and a deadly fear of the sea. His flights
were also important in the development of radio links with aircraft. In 1935, he
mysteriously disappeared off the Burmese coast. Ian Mackersey’s biography,
Smithy, is lively, the subject fascinating. Period pictures, too: pilots wore
riding breeches and plus-fours. Published by Little, Brown, £20, ISBN
0316643084.