Round-the-World Flights

First Solo Round-the-World Helicopter Flight

Page 7q (rev: 1000)

Dick Smith	Smith Autograph	Earth Beneath Me	Australian Explorer	Smith & Plane

	Dick (Richard) Harold Smith was born on March 18, 1944.  He studied electrical 
engineering at Sydney University and at a technical college but failed to finish 
either course.  He began working on radios in the workshop of his grandfather and by 
1961 was repairing and installing taxi cab radios.  In 1968 he had established an 
electronics store empire, "Dick Smith Electronics" which he sold to Woolworths in 
1982 so he could  pursue other endeavors.
	Smith pursued his interests in flying and exploration and on August 5, 1982 
began a solo helicopter flight round-the-world in his Bell JetRanger III helicopter 
taking a leisurely 11 months to complete his circumnavigation.  To make his 
round-the-world flight possible he, like Perot and Coburn before him, had to hire 
an ocean-going vessel and pre-position it between Japan and the Aleutians for 
refueling.  He set no speed records but did set three world records, first solo 
helicopter flight round-the-world, first solo helicopter crossing the Atlantic and 
first solo helicopter crossing the Pacific.
	Smith donated his "Australian Explorer" helicopter to the Powerhouse Museum in
Sydney Australia. 

Itinerary:
Leg #1  Fort Worth, TX     to  London, England       5,620 miles     61H  11M
Leg #2  London, England    to  Sidney, Australia    12,266 miles    113H  12M 
Leg #3  Sydney, Australia  to  Fort Worth, TX       17,412 miles    145H  36M

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