Ivor McIntyre

Ivor Ewing McIntyre, CBE, AFC & Bar (6 October 1899 – 12 March 1928) was a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

[6] In July 1925, McIntyre was tasked by the Chief of the Air Staff with intercepting a squadron of the United States Pacific Fleet as it approached Melbourne on a flag-waving visit; he succeeded in doing so despite poor weather and not without, according to the official history of the inter-war RAAF, "an enormous element of luck, not to mention risk".

[8] Prime Minister Stanley Bruce called the journey "one of the most wonderful accomplishments in the history of aviation"; his government presented McIntyre with a gift of £250, while mission commander Goble received £500.

In company with Flight Sergeant Les Trist, they took off from Point Cook on 26 September 1926 and made a 10,000-mile (16,000 km) round trip to the Solomon Islands in a De Havilland DH.50A floatplane.

Approaching Southport, Queensland, on 29 September, the DH.50 lost power and had to land in the ocean; after making repairs, McIntyre was twice thrown clear of the aircraft while taxiing to the beach in heavy surf.

[19] He died in an Adelaide hospital on 12 March 1928 of injuries received the previous day, when he crashed the club's Moth trainer while giving an aerobatics display at Parafield.

[2][20] Goble said of him: "That he did sterling work with our air force is well known, but it is doubtful whether the majority of the people in Australia have a true appreciation of the greatness of this man and the magnitude and difficulties of many of the tasks he performed.

Ivor McIntyre (right) and Stanley Goble (left) chaired by the crowd on St Kilda Beach after their round-Australia flight in 1924
McIntyre (left), Les Trist (centre) and Richard Williams (right) on their Pacific Islands flight in 1926