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as a child and inspired him to become an astronaut. “You have to ask yourself how did they succeed when others did not, and part of the answer is here,” Dr Thomas said, look- ing up at the aircraft’s huge engines.

“This aeroplane was powered by two Rolls Royce Eagle engines. These engines were state of the art in 1919 and the only source of the high-reliability engines that were needed for this type of mission.”

It’s immediately obvious that, when it comes to the Smith brothers’ Vickers Vimy, Dr Thomas knows his stuff.

“It was a name that I was very familiar with,” he said.

“When people ask why I’m here in Adelaide I tell them we’re making a documentary on the Smith brothers and the Vimy and many people look at me like, ‘who?’ It’s surprising that this is an unknown story.”

The documentary is The Greatest Air Race And The Heroes The World Forgot, currently in production for release next year as part of the Epic Flight Centenary celebrations to mark the 100 year anniversary of the race. Dr Thomas has signed on as the doco’s presenter and narrator. “Think about this – just 50 years after this race Neil and Buzz walked on the moon,” he said. “That means my maternal grandfather, who had been wounded at Gallipoli, was in Adelaide when the Smith brothers landed and he was alive when they walked on the moon.”

It was this rapid pace of development, Dr Thomas said, that contributed to the brothers being largely forgotten.

“There were many other aviation feats that eclipsed it, not the least of which was Charles Kingsford Smith,” he said. “And the fact that the Smith name got tied together in people’s minds didn’t help either. Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart – they all eclipsed it in people’s minds because they were individual feats and that resonated more with the public.

“It was the lone battle against the elements, an almost Arthurian legend and it generated a lot of public interest. Of course Ross Smith died in the early twenties, and he was clearly the driver behind a lot of this activity.

“He planned the flight and executed a lot of it and his early death led to a lot of the history being forgotten about prematurely.”