Lady Southern Cross

The Lady Southern Cross was a Lockheed Altair monoplane owned by Australian pioneer aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith.

However, before it could be flown in Australia, the Government objected to the commercial use of ANZAC (the use of which remains restricted in Australian law today[2]), and Kingsford Smith was forced to remove it.

After arriving safely in Oakland on 4 November 1934, the Lady Southern Cross was left in the care of Lockheed at Burbank, California for repair, overhaul and storage.

After obtaining a British airworthiness certificate, and having been turned back once by a hailstorm over Italy, Kingsford Smith and co-pilot Tommy Pethybridge left Croydon Airport in London on 6 November 1935 in an attempt to break the England to Australia speed record set during the MacRobertson Air Race.

Melrose claimed to have seen the Lady Southern Cross fighting a storm 150 miles from shore and 200 feet over the sea with fire coming from its exhaust.