AN AIR KING

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 456, 11 September 1928, Page 9

AN AIR KING

KINGSFORD SMITH’S NATURE SMILING AND FEARLESS “Captain Kingsford Smith has that fearless nature which inspires one with confidence,” says Mrs. J. W. Marshall, who was the first woman to cross Australia by air, being piloted by Captain Kingsford Smith. “His temperament entirely changes when he is in the air. He slightly hesitates when speaking on the ground, hut decision is foremost when above,” she says. “We met with air pockets, gales of wind, and hours of ‘bumping along aa aerial rutty road, but throughout it ali he was cheery and smiling. He was then in his natural element—the air—of which I knew then, as the world has found out since, he is a king. “He treats everybody with innate courtesy, whether they be men, women, or children. He has tireless energy, and, as we often admired, wonderful resource. His air sense vas uncanny. “Coming over the Blue Mountains, wl. keeping fairly low for the -iew, a sudden rainstorm hit us. He fought, through the mist and partial darkness till he arr'-'n rode in the sunlight, victorious over the elements. “When I was aloft I slept, read, and wrote, often forgetting I was off the ground until the wind screaming along the stays and wires when descending would recall me to the present. “Thousands of people in this State have followed the flights of the Southern Cross with the same intensity as myself, hoping and praying that everything would be well, and, knowing if it was a question of the man, Kingsford Smith was that man.”