Michael Smith spent 20 years restoring Melbourne’s beloved Sun Theatre and becoming one of Australia’s last independent cinema operators. He then set off on a rather different journey: to become the first person to fly solo around the world in an amphibious plane.
With limited flying experience, no support team and only basic instruments in his tiny flying boat, the Southern Sun, Smith risked his life to make modern aviation history. His adventures include an unexpected greeting by Special Branch on his arrival in the UK, a near-death experience while leaving Greenland, and a wondrous journey up the Mississippi. In just seven months he made eighty stops around the globe, exploring twenty-five cities and communities, and visiting some seventy cinemas. All along the way Smith updated his online journal, cheered on by 50,000 followers.
In 2016 he was named Australian Geographic's Adventurer of the Year.
ANZEC Member - Michael G Smith
Michael Smith is an aviator who became the first person to solo navigate the world in a single-engine flying boat. Smith was named Australian Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2016. Smith took off from Melbourne, Australia in his SeaRey aircraft named Southern Sun in April 2015, intending to retrace the historic 1938 Sydney to London route of the Qantas Empire Flying Boat service. When he reached London, Smith determined to press on and, landing at Longreach, Queensland on 11 November 2015 became the first person to navigate solo around the world in a single-engine flying boat. The 210-day journey required 480 hours flying, 9,700 litres of fuel and stops at 80 cities along the way.
