For three short years in the early 1930s Portmarnock Beach in north County Dublin, Ireland was the epicentre of world aviation as the starting point for several trans-Atlantic and circumnavigation endurance-flights.
The town of Portmarnock is located on the east coast of Ireland, 14 kms north of Dublin city centre. Portmarnock, ‘Port Mearnóg’ or ‘The Landing Place of Marnock’ takes is name from Saint Marnock, who having arrived in the 6th century and founded his church amid the sand dunes.
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Known locally as the ‘Velvet Strand’, Portmarnock beach runs north to south and was considered as a perfect landing strip in the days when there was no commercial landing site as Dublin Airport didn’t open until January 1940 and Baldonnel Aerodrome, opened in 1917, was for military use.
The three aviators most closely associated with Portmarnock beach are, Australian flyer, Charles Kingsford-Smith whose story we covered in Season 1 “Charles Kingsford Smith, flying ‘Southern Cross’ trans-Atlantic from Portmarnock 1930”, Scotsman, Jim Mollinson and Australian, Charles Ulm. All three aviators were known to each other having flown together on numerous record-breaking attempts.
The ‘Southern Cross’
The first aviator to pin Portmarnock beach on the world aviation map was Australian flyer, Charles Kingsford-Smith (1897 – 1935)
At 4:25 am on June 24 1930, watched by 700 spectators and taking 900 metres (3,000 feet) to become airborne, his heavily laden “old bus” Fokker F.VII took off on the last leg of his global circumnavigation flight.
Aboard his aircraft named ‘Southern Cross’ in honour of Australia was Irish navigator Captain P.J. Saul, Dutch co-pilot, Evert van Dijk and John Stannage the radio operator from New Zealand.
The Fokker F.VII (VH-USU) tri-motor had undergone a major overhaul in Amsterdam and was equipped with three 239 HP Wright J-5 Whirlwind engines. It had a cruising speed of 170 km/h (106 mph) and a service ceiling of 4.267 m (14.000 ft). The Fokkers normal range was 1.100 km so to extend flight duration this for the transatlantic flight two extra fuel tanks were fitted.
The crew faced challenges, including fog and compass failure, during the East-West transatlantic flight, ultimately landing triumphantly in Newfoundland after 32 hours.
Charles Kingsford Smith was knighted in 1932 and in 1966 he appeared on the Australian twenty dollar banknote. In Ireland each year, the historic flight is commemorated on the Velvet Strand, Portmarnock beach as ‘Southern Cross Day’ when people dress in period clothing.
The ‘Heart’s Content’
In 1932, young Scotsman, Jim Mollinson (1905 – 1959), arrived in Ireland with his de Havilland aircraft, ‘Heart’s Content’, intent on making his own piece of endurance aviation history.
In the 1930s pilots were young and Jim Mollinson was very young, obtaining his Royal Air Force (RAF) Short Service Commission aged 18 and was the youngest officer in the air force. After returning from postings in India, aged just 22 he became an RAF instructor at the Central Flying School establishing a record as the youngest person to hold this role.
Mollison was a skilled and fearless pilot who set many aviation endurance records and in late summer 1932 he arrived in Ireland intent on making his name with a north Atlantic solo endurance flight.
His plane was named “Heart’s Content”, a single-engine Puss-Moth monoplane built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company with a range of 300 mi (480 km, 260 nmi). The plane had a de Havilland Gipsy III 4-cylinder piston engine producing 120 hp (89 kW) and flew at 124 mph (200 km/h), one of the most high-performing private aircraft of its time.
Formerly an employee of Charles Kingsford-Smith in Australian National Airways, Mollinson now benefited from charts prepared by Captain Paddy Saul, who had served as the navigator on the ‘Southern Cross’ flight from the same location two years earlier.
Piloting Heart’s Content (G-ABXY), Mollinson took off from Portmarnock at 11:00 am on August 18th, 1932. His departure was attended by his new wife, the renowned aviator Amy Johnston, along with the Lord Mayor Alfie Byrne and reports say up to 10,000 well-wishers.
Opting to fly without a bulky radio to conserve fuel, Mollinson touched down at Pennfield Ridge, New Brunswick, Canada, thirty hours later. At the youthful age of twenty-five, he achieved the historic feat of being the first person to solo, non-stop, east-west across the north Atlantic.
There are six city streets in England named in Jim Mollinson’s honour.
“Faith in Australia”
Our third 1930s aviator to avail of the uniquely long runway at the Velvet Strand, Portmarnock was another Australian, Charles Thomas Philippe Ulm (1898 – 1934).
Ulm enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in September 1914 under the alias “Charles Jackson,” falsely claiming a different age. He participated in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 and was wounded, later serving on the Western Front in France in 1918.
A long-time flying associate of Charles Kingsford Smith, they had previously flown together as part of a four-man crew on the first successful trans-Pacific flight between Australia and New Zealand in May 1928.
Ulm served as the business expert in the partnership with Kingsford Smith, securing sponsorship funding for aircraft acquisition, endurance modifications and fuel. He also collaborated with Kingsford Smith in founding Australian National Airways, where our previous endurance pilot, Jim Mollison, had also flown.
After the commercial failure of Australian National Airways, Ulm bought one of the airline’s Avro X aircraft for himself and named it “Faith in Australia” and went on to set several endurance records.
In July of 1933 Charles Ulm was in Ireland with the aim of making his own east-west trans-Atlantic flight attempt. Earlier in the year, the Avro X had undergone reconstruction for extended-range flights, equipped larger fuel tanks and three new 330 hp (250 kW) Wright Whirlwind radial engines.
On the morning of 27th July Ulm had flown his ‘Faith in Australia’ (VH-UXX) three-engine monoplane over from the Aer Corps base at Baldonnel (Casement) Aerodrome and landed on Portmarnock beach.
The Avro X had been wheeled onto a wooden ramp for the loading of fuel and afterwards was being manoeuvred into the take-off position, however, the increased weight of the fuel load caused the overloaded plane to sink into the sand and three onlookers were injured.
Members of the Garda Síochána (police) and Aer Corps had been guarding the plane on the beach and they were then tasked with pulling it out of the sand and onto higher ground to save it from being engulfed by the incoming tide. However, attempts to re-position the plane with men and machinery led to it sinking even further and, with the incoming tide approaching, the operation had to be abandoned.
Philanthropist and aviation visionary Lord Wakefield of Hythe covered the expenses incurred from seawater damage to the radial engines. However, by the time the aircraft was ready, it was too late to attempt an Atlantic flight due to the approaching months of harsh autumn weather.
In 1978, Charles Ulm was honoured on an Australian postage stamp with the Southern Cross. In November 2008, Qantas named an Airbus A380 after him in recognition of his aviation contributions.
In 1999, in honour of Portmarnock beach’s significance in early aviation history, a sculpture titled “Eccentric Orbit” was installed on the promenade.
Charles Kingsford Smith flying ‘Southern Cross’ transAtlantic – Ireland 1930 | Season 1 – Episode 82
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Information sources:
British Pathé
Cite Monash
Critical Past
DrBear Aviation
Irish Examiner
Irish Times
Leob.nl
Monumentaustralia
Polot.net
Southern Cross Festival
National Library of Australia
Duchas.ie
Trove.nla.gov
Visit Portmarnock
