Charles Thomas Philippe Ulm (18 October 1898 – 3 December 1934) was a pioneer Australian

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

. He partnered with

Charles Kingsford Smith Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith (9 February 18978 November 1935), nicknamed Smithy, was an Australian aviation pioneer. He piloted the first transpacific flight and the first flight between Australia and New Zealand. Kingsford Smith was b ...

in achieving a number of aviation firsts, serving as Kingsford Smith's co-pilot on the first

transpacific flight A transpacific flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Pacific Ocean from Asia or Australia to North America, Central America, or South America, or ''vice versa''. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing aircraft, balloons and other t ...

and the first flight between Australia and New Zealand. He and two others disappeared near Hawaii in 1934 while undertaking a test flight for an air service between Australia and the United States.

Early life

Ulm was born on 18 October 1898 in

Middle Park, Victoria Middle Park is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. Middle Park recorded a population of 4,000 at the 2021 ce ...

. He was the third son of Ada Emma (née Greenland) and Emile Gustave Ulm. His father was a French-born artist and his mother was an Australian. Ulm spent his early years in Melbourne, moving to Sydney as a child where his family settled in

Mosman Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local governm ...

. He was educated at state schools.

World War I

Ulm joined the AIF in September 1914, enlisting under the name "Charles Jackson" and lying about his age. He fought and was wounded at

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

in 1915, and on the Western Front in 1918. Charles Ulm was married twice. In 1919 he married Isabel Amy Winter. After divorcing his first wife, in 1927 he married Mary Josephine Callaghan.

Partnership with Charles Kingsford Smith

Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm (cropped)

Ulm is best known for his partnership with Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, and was Kingsford Smith's

copilot In aviation, the first officer (FO), also called co-pilot, is the pilot who is second-in-command of the aircraft to the captain, who is the legal commander. In the event of incapacitation of the captain, the first officer will assume command of ...

on many of his famous flights, including the 1928 first crossing of the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

in the ''

Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for ...

''. Ulm was the "business brains" in the partnership, and acquired the funding necessary for the journey. Ulm was also Kingsford Smith's partner in establishing

Australian National Airways Australian National Airways (ANA) was Australia's predominant aerial carrier from the mid-1930s to the early 1950s. The Holyman's Airways period On 19 March 1932 Flinders Island Airways began a regular aerial service using the Desoutter Mk.I ...

Later ventures

After the failure of Australian National Airways, Ulm bought one of the airline's Avro X aircraft for himself, and named it ''Faith in Australia''. In this aircraft in 1933, Ulm set the speed record from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

to Australia at 6 days, 17 hours and 56 minutes, and made several trans- Tasman flights. In 1934, flying in ''Faith in Australia'', Ulm carried the first official airmail from

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

to Australia, and the first official airmail delivery from Australia to

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

Disappearance

Charles Ulm's Avro-Fokker 10 aeroplane 'Faith in Australia' 1934

Ulm established a new company in September 1934, Great Pacific Airways Ltd, intending to operate a San Francisco-Sydney air service. Ulm disappeared in December 1934, together with copilot George Littlejohn and navigator Leon Skilling, on a test flight from

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

in VH-UXY ''Stella Australis'', an

Airspeed Envoy The Airspeed AS.6 Envoy was a twin-engined light transport aircraft designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Airspeed Ltd. The Envoy originated as a heavier twin-engine derivative of Airspeed's Courier light transport aircra ...

. It is believed an unexpected tailwind and bad weather caused them to fly past the Hawaiian islands in the dark. The wind was about 35 knots from the south-southeast and the aircraft may also have been pushed north of the islands. At about 10 am local time on 3 December, after sending a series of

Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...

d radio messages to Hawaii over five hours advising that they were lost and running out of fuel, the Envoy ditched into the sea. Despite an extensive and immediate search by aircraft and 23 naval ships, no trace of ''Stella Australis'' or her crew was ever found. Ulm had chosen not to carry a life raft on board, preferring to save weight and predicting that the aircraft would float for two days if it were forced to land on the water. The plane had been customized by Airspeed to meet Ulm's own specifications; Airspeed's manager,

Nevil Shute Norway Nevil Shute Norway (17 January 189912 January 1960) was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name, in order to protect h ...

, suggested in his autobiography that the internal cabin design may have contributed to the navigational problems, because the inexperienced navigator/wireless operator (who had been a ship's officer) had to sit in the rear compartment behind the large petrol tank and some distance from the pilot. Ulm communicated by speaking tube but could not see the charts or calculations (this arrangement had been chosen by Ulm instead of having the navigator in the cramped space in front of the tank with the pilot and co-pilot).

Tributes

In 1978 he was honoured on a

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

issued by

Australia Post Australia Post, formally the Australian Postal Corporation, is the government business enterprise that provides postal services in Australia. The head office of Australia Post is located in Bourke Street, Melbourne, which also serves as a post o ...

depicting Ulm and the ''

''. In November 2008

Qantas Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founded ...

announced that it would be naming one of its

Airbus A380 The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...

s after Charles Ulm in recognition of his contribution to the aviation industry. This A380 (registration: VH-OQG) entered service on 3 November 2010.

Sydney Airport Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (colloquially Mascot Airport, Kingsford Smith Airport, or Sydney Airport; ; ) is an international airport in Sydney, Australia, located 8 km (5 mi) south of the Sydney central business district, in the ...

former office building was known as the Charles Ulm Building, until it was replaced by the Central Terrace Building in the 2000s. In 2019

announced that its two corporate office buildings would be renamed as part of the airport's centenary celebrations. As part of this change the former Customs House was renamed as the Charles Ulm Building.

References

Australian Dictionary of Biography

External links

* *Listen to recordings of aviators such as

, Charles Ulm,

Amy Johnson Amy Johnson (born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, she set many long-distance records duri ...

and

Bert Hinkler Herbert John Louis Hinkler (8 December 1892 – 7 January 1933), better known as Bert Hinkler, was a pioneer Australian aviator (dubbed "Australian Lone Eagle") and inventor. He designed and built early aircraft before being the first person ...

talking about their journeys on the

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national co ...

of Australia's website
'Our Heroes of the Air'Photos from an album kept by Ulm's wife Mary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulm, Charles 1898 births 1934 deaths Australian aviation record holders Australian people of French descent Australian recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) Aviators from Melbourne Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents Missing aviators People lost at sea Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1934 Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in international waters Australian military personnel of World War I Military personnel from Melbourne