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New Plymouth Airport Plaques

by Louise Pease

13 July 2023
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This plaque commemorates the first landing of Kingsford Smith in the Southern Cross on 11 January 1933 (2012). Ron Lambert.
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This plaque marks the opening of the first New Plymouth airport at Bell Block in 1936 (2012). Ron Lambert.
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This plaque is a memorial to the deaths of Australian aviators Charles Ulm (1934) and Charles Kingsford Smith (1935). It was unveiled on 21 March 1936 (2012). Ron Lambert.
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The first official trans-Tasman airmail was carried by Charles Ulm in Faith in Australia to Bell Block Aerodrome, on 12 April 1934. In 1935 a set of three airmail stamps was issued by the New Zealand Post Office. Designed by James Berry, they depicted the Bell Block airfield and its hangar and show the arrival of a Union Airways De Havilland Rapide.
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New Plymouth Airport Official Opening and Royal New Zealand Aero Club Pageant, March 3-4, 1967
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Souvenir programme for the North Island Air Pageant to celebrate the opening of New Plymouth Airport and the unveiling of the memorial plaque to Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm.
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These three plaques were transferred about 1966 from the former New Plymouth Airport, Highway 3, Bell Block, to the lawn at the eastern end of the former New Plymouth Airport Terminal. When the new New Plymouth airport was opened in March 2020 the plaques were moved again, to the eastern end of the terminal near the public seat in the VIP car park area. The first plaque marks the opening of the first New Plymouth Airport at Bell Block in 1936. The second marks the first Trans-Tasman flight in 1933 with fare paying passengers, piloted by the renown aviator Charles Kingsford Smith. The third plaque is a memorial to Kingsford Smith and fellow Australian aviator Charles Ulm (who captained the first official trans-Tasman airmail delivery flight from Sydney to New Plymouth in 1934) who both died in aircraft crashes; Ulm in 1934 when his plane disappeared near Hawaii and Kingsford Smith when his plane crashed in 1935 off the coast of Burma.

Documents

Plaque problem, Taranaki Daily News 10 September 1965

Southern Cross proved defining moment, Taranaki Daily News 3 August 2013

Related Information

Website

Souvenir of the flight of Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith from Sydney to New Plymouth January 11th 1933.

Link

First official trans-Tasman airmail delivery from Australia

Link

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