July 22: Dick Smith Completes Flight Around the World in a Helicopter (1983)
Prayer Idea
Pray for people who use helicopters to transport patients, fight fires, and perform search and rescue operations.
History Note
Since ancient times, people in China have been creating flying toys using feathers or bamboo. During the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci explored the concept of flight and made drawings. A toy helicopter influenced the young Wright Brothers.
Gustave de Ponton d'Amécourt coined the term “helicopter” in 1863. Inventors experimented with designs that could potentially carry people in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Heinrich Focke of Germany created the first practical helicopter that could be fully controlled in flight in 1936. Both the Germans and the Americans used helicopters in small numbers during World War II, and helicopter technology quickly improved after the war.
Dick Smith was born in 1944 in Australia and became a successful businessman. He learned to fly in 1972 and got his helicopter pilot license in 1979. In 1982 Smith embarked on an attempt to be the first person to fly a helicopter around the world alone. He had to stop often to refuel, and he made the trip in three separate stages over the course of a year. This animation shows the route he took.
Smith started in Hurst, Texas (near Fort Worth), where his Bell Model 206B-3 helicopter was built. He departed on August 5, 1982, and flew to the East Coast of the United States. He headed north into Canada and then to Greenland and Iceland. He reached the United Kingdom and landed in London on August 19.
The second leg of the journey began on September 13. Smith left England, crossed the English Channel, and flew over France, Italy, and Greece. Crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Egypt, he continued across Saudi Arabia to Pakistan and India, through Southeast Asia, to Indonesia, and to his home country of Australia. He reached Sydney on October 3, 1982.
After taking a break for the summer (in the Southern Hemisphere), Smith left Sydney on May 25, 1983. He headed north to the island of New Guinea and then to the Philippines, China, Taiwan, and Japan. Since the Soviet Union would not allow Smith to to land in its territory, his trip did not include a refueling stop there. Instead, after leaving Japan, he refueled on a ship in the Pacific Ocean on his way to Alaska. He continued flying over Canada and then made it back to the continental United States. Smith returned to Hurst, Texas, on July 22, 1983.
Dick Smith took a break because of bad weather on Baffin Island, Canada. Photo courtesy Richard Harold ("Dick") Smith / CC BY-SA 4.0.
Learn More
This is a 2022 interview with Dick Smith about his life.
Find more resources at Homeschool History.
