Dick Smith

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This article is about the Australian adventurer. For other uses, see Dick Smith.
Richard Harold Smith AC (born 18 March 1944) is an Australian entrepreneur, record-breaking aviator, philanthropist and political activist.[1] He holds a number of aviation world records and is the founder of Dick Smith Electronics, Australian Geographic and Dick Smith Foods. He was selected as 1986 Australian of the Year. In 2010, he founded the media production company Smith&Nasht with the intention of producing films about global issues. In 2015, he was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia.[3] He is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.[4]
Smith's father was a salesman and sometime manager at Angus & Robertson's bookstore. He started a business that failed when Smith was 17,[5] and his mother a housewife. His maternal grandfather was pictorialist photographer Harold Cazneaux.
As a child, Smith was considered academically hopeless and, having a speech defect, called himself 'Dick Miff'.[6] From his home in East Roseville, Smith attended Primary School at Roseville Public School at which, for the Fifth Grade, he ranked academically 45th in a class of 47.[7] He attended North Sydney Technical High School. After three years of French, he managed only 7% in the Intermediate Certificate examination. He went on to complete his Leaving Certificate in 1961.[5]
He joined the 1st East Roseville Scout Group as a Wolf Cub in 1952, aged 8 and later as a Boy Scout and Rover until 1967, earning the Baden-Powell Award in 1966.[8]
Smith gained his amateur radio licence at the age of 17. He holds call sign VK2DIK.[9] In his early 20s, Smith worked as a taxi radio repair technician for several years.[7]
Smith holds many world aviation records, made in rotary and fixed-wing aircraft and beneath balloons:
Smith's first significant adventure was in 1964 when he sailed with a group of Rover Scouts to Balls Pyramid in the Pacific Ocean – the highest sea spire in the world. Failing to top it on this occasion, Smith returned in 1980, completed an ascent and, together with Hugh Ward and John Worrall, formally claimed the land for Australia by unfurling the New South Wales state flag.[10]:173 He went on, in 1988, to sue the state government over its ban on recreational climbing of the spire because the "restrictions really attack people's right to have an adventure". His action was taken when the government refused an application by Greg Mortimer, the first Australian to climb Mt Everest, to make the climb.[11]
Smith learned to fly in 1972, graduating to a twin engine Beech Baron. In 1976, he competed in the Perth to Sydney air race.[12]
Smith conceived and initiated airline flights over Antarctica. His first flight was made by a chartered QANTAS aircraft on 13 February 1977.[13] In August the same year, Smith chartered another jumbo, this time to take paying passengers on a 10-hour, 5,000 km flight over the Red Centre of the Outback in search of Lasseter's fabled but lost reef of gold.[14] The search, attended by Lasseter's son Bob and Aboriginal tracker and artist Nosepeg Tjunkata Tjupurrula, found nothing.[15]
In 1978, he found the wreck of the Kookaburra aircraft, lost since an engine-failure forced pilot Keith Anderson to land in the Central Australian Desert in 1929.[16]
At the age of 34, he purchased his first helicopter, a Bell Jetranger II, and, on 23 February 1979, obtained his licence to fly it.[10] In January 1980, with Rick Howell co-piloting the Jetranger, he made a record-setting flight from Sydney to Lord Howe Island and returned (1,163 km).[10]:163 The helicopter opened new opportunities for exploring places otherwise inaccessible.
In May 1981, Smith rediscovered the site where, in 1929, Charles Kingsford Smith emergency landed his Southern Cross on the banks of a tributary to the Glenelg River in a remote area of northwestern Australia, in what was to become known as the "Coffee Royal" affair. He and his family left a plaque on a small memorial they erected in the area where they found shell casings and other evidence of the landing.[17]
In 1982–83, Smith successfully completed the first solo helicopter flight around the world.[18] His flight began in Fort Worth, Texas, on 5 August 1982, in a newly purchased Bell Jetranger 206B.
On 19 August, the 50th anniversary of James Mollison's solo crossing of the Atlantic, Smith completed the first solo Atlantic crossing in a helicopter when he arrived at Balmoral Castle, United Kingdom to be greeted by a waiting Prince Charles.[19] From there he flew to London, where, later that day, the first stage of his flight ended, after 11,752 km. The second stage of his flight started in London on 13 September and finished in Sydney, Australia, 3 October 1982, 23,092 km later.[20] On 25 May 1983, the final stage of the flight started. Not being granted permission to land in the Soviet Union, he arranged to land on a ship to refuel. His journey ended on 22 July 1983, the 50th anniversary of Wiley Post's solo aeroplane flight around the world on 22 July 1933.
Smith made the first helicopter flight to the North Pole, upon his third attempt in his Jetranger helicopter. In 1986, he had to give up just 670 kilometres short of his destination because his navigation equipment was beginning to fail and visibility had dropped to almost zero. He failed once more, before his successful flight on 28 April 1987. The flight was made possible by having fuel delivered in a DHC-6 Twin Otter for refuelling in parts of the Arctic Circle.[21]
In 1988/89, Smith flew a Twin Otter aircraft VH-SHW (registered after his hero, polar explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins) following meridians of longitude around the world, landing at both the North and South Poles,[22][23] making him the first person to complete such a circumnavigation.[24] The flight followed the "vertical" South-North-South track, (keeping broadly between 80 and 150 degrees E, heading south, and 60 and 100 degrees W, heading north) departing Sydney, Australia, on 1 November 1988, and returning on 28 May 1989.[25] The journey included the first flight made from Australia to the Australian Antarctic Territory.[26]
In August and again in October 1989, Smith, piloting his own helicopter, initiated and conducted searches in remote tracts of the Simpson Desert for the first stage of the Redstone Sparta rocket which had carried Australia's first satellite into orbit, making the nation only the fourth to succeed in doing so, on 29 November 1967. His search was ultimately successful, the relic recovered in an elaborate 22-person overland expedition the following year and placed on display in Woomera.[27]:76–80
In October 1991, Smith was the second person to fly over Mount Everest.[28] Dick and Pip Smith circled the summit in his Cessna Citation, taking photographs. In Australian Geographic (January–March 1993) Dick wrote: 'The experience was unbelievable and I felt privileged to be one of the very few people to obtain permission from the Nepalese government to fly over the summit."[29]
Smith and his co-pilot John Wallington made the first balloon trip across Australia, in a Cameron-R77 Rozière balloon, Australian Geographic Flyer,[30] on 18 June 1993,[31] for which he received the Commission International d'Aerostation (FAI Ballooning Commission)'s 1995 Montgolfier Diploma.[32]
In 1994, Smith accompanied Director-General Peter K N Lok of the Civil Aviation Department on the inaugural helicopter flight onto the helipad atop the Peninsula Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.[33]
In November of the same year, Smith broke the record for a purely solar-powered vehicular crossing of the Australian continent. Driving the Aurora Q1 for eight-and-a-half days, he completed the 2,530 miles (4,070 km) journey from Perth to Sydney at an average speed of 31 miles per hour (50 km/h). The vehicle was equipped with 1,943 solar cells epoxied to its fibreglass shell, with lead-acid and lithium-thionol batteries for storage, producing a maximum of 1.4 kW. He achieved a 20-day reduction in the record previously set by Hans Tholstrup and Larry Perkins 12 years earlier in The Quiet Achiever.[34][35]
It is notable that all of Smith's exploits involving navigation up to this point were accomplished without the aid of satellite navigation systems such as GPS. Often inaccurate and unreliable Very Low Frequency systems and systems using radio direction finding principles had to be supplemented by dead reckoning for determination of position.
In June 1995, Smith completed another helicopter flight around the world, this time with his wife Pip. He bought a twin-engine Sikorsky S-76 helicopter. At their journey's end, Dick and Pip had completed the first east to west (i.e. against prevailing winds) helicopter flight around the globe, flown more than 39,607 nautical miles (73,352 kilometres) in the process and taken more than 10,700 photographs as a record of what the planet looked like in the last decade of the 20th century. He said, "I hope that many of the areas will be photographed again in 10 years' time from exactly the same positions".[29]
In November 1995, Smith climbed the most remote of the seven summits, Carstensz Pyramid in Irian Jaya with Peter Hillary and Greg Mortimer.[10]:197
In February 2000, Smith and his co-pilot John Wallington became the first people to successfully complete an east–west crossing of the Tasman Sea by balloon, from New Zealand to Australia against generally prevailing winds.[36]
By November 2005, Smith had accumulated 8,500 hours total pilot time including over 1,000 hours single pilot jet time.[37]
On 7 January 2006, Smith flew his Cessna Grand Caravan from Sydney to Hari Hari on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island to mark the 75th anniversary of the first solo trans-Tasman flight by Guy Menzies in 1931.[38]
On Tuesday 26 August 2008, Smith, with his wife Pip, completed a two-and-a-half-year drive around the world. The journey of 40,361 kilometres was made by road vehicle.[39]
In June 2010, Dick Smith became fully qualified to operate the Cooper Creek Ferry on the Birdsville Track in South Australia.[1][2]
In 1968, with a A$610 investment by him and his then fiancée Pip,[7][10]:203 Smith founded Dick Smith Car Radios, a small taxi radio repair business in the Sydney suburb of Neutral Bay, New South Wales, then later expanded into the car radio business at Gore Hill, naming himself the "Car-Radio 'Nut'".[40] This business later became electronics retailer Dick Smith Electronics which grew rapidly in the late-1970s, particularly through sales of Citizens Band radios and then personal computers, with annual sales of about A$17 million by 1978.[10]:176
Smith took the business into Asia in 1978, opening a store in Ashley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong's tourist shopping hub, and publishing an international catalogue edition until the store closed in 1980. That year, stores were also opened in Northern California and Los Angeles.
In 1980, he sold the business to Woolworths[41]:35 for A$25 million.[42] Though Smith retained no shares nor role in the company after 1982, the business continued to trade with his name prominently displayed in every aspect of its operations. Sales reached A$1.4 billion in 2014,[43] before a sharp decline and closure of its then hundreds of stores in Australia and New Zealand by May 2016.[44]
In 1986, Smith founded Australian Geographic Pty Ltd, which published the Australian Geographic magazine, a National Geographic-style magazine focusing on Australia. Smith did not want to greatly expand Australian Geographic, but his friend and CEO Ike Bain persuaded him to change his mind and soon it was a successful business. He sold the business to Fairfax Media in 1995 for A$41 million.[45]
Smith co-produced the documentary First Contact, in 1983, recounting the discovery, in 1930, of a flourishing native population in the interior highlands of New Guinea. The film went on to win Best Feature Documentary at the 1983 Australian Film Institute Awards[46] and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[47]
Smith has had a keenly pro-Australian business philosophy going back as far as 1975 when, faced with an invasion by the relative juggernaut Tandy of the United States into the local electronics business, he complained
"Tandy are prepared to operate for a period of five years at a financial loss to set up in Australia ... This is not free enterprise, it is not competition, it is totally unfair ... why should a foreign firm be allowed by the Australian Government to take over the Australian market from the Australian people and remain 99 per cent foreign-owned?"[41]:22–23
He subsequently added "Proud to be Australian" prominently in Dick Smith Electronics promotional material[41]:25 and several years later flew an enormous Australian flag outside new headquarters in North Ryde, featuring the image on the cover of the company's 1980 catalogue. In 1979, Smith signed contracts to purchase the iconic Birdsville Hotel only to be stymied by a fire which burned the building down the next day.[48]
Smith founded Dick Smith Foods in 1999, a crusade against foreign ownership of Australian food producers, particularly Arnott's Biscuits, which in 1997 became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Campbell Soup Company. Dick Smith Foods only sold foods produced in Australia by Australian-owned companies and all profits went to charity.[49]
Dick Smith Foods' products were often named to parody the items with which they competed – for example, in competition with Redheads matches, Smith sold near-identically packaged matches called "Dickheads" with the text on the rear stating "We would have to be complete dickheads to let most of our famous Australian brands be taken over by foreign companies. Brands such as Vegemite, Aeroplane Jelly, Arnott's, Speedo and Redhead Matches are in overseas hands. This means the profit and wealth created goes overseas and robs our children and grandchildren of a future."[50] A chocolate biscuit called "Temptin'" competed directly with the established favourite Arnott's Tim Tam. In 2003, Arnott's took legal action against Dick Smith Foods, resulting in an out-of-court settlement that required the "p" in the Temptin' logo to be increased in size.[51]
In 2018, Smith announced closure of the business in 2019, having distributed over A$10 million in profits to charity, citing aggressive competition from German-owned Aldi through a strategy including low-cost imports notwithstanding Aldi's claim to operate an Australian-first buying policy.[52]
Smith has been a vocal advocate for the civil aviation industry in Australia, having been appointed by Prime Minister Bob Hawke to be Chairman of the Board of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) from February 1990 to February 1992. He also served as Deputy-Chairman and Chairman of the Board of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA, the CAA's regulatory successor after the 1995 de-merger of the government's aviation operations including air traffic control) from 1997 until his resignation in 1999. During his CAA tenure, a comprehensive reform plan (including the Class G Demonstration airspace reform) was devised to improve safety,[37] streamline bureaucracy and reduce costs but, facing opposition from the incumbent commercial operators, particularly Qantas and Ansett, it was never implemented. Smith claimed this was because there was resistance to increased competition in the market. Smith faced the same obstacles as head of CASA and left, concluding that his work there had failed.[53]
Smith has campaigned ever since for the reining in of over-regulation of the industry, particularly of flight training operators where layers of compliance costs associated with instructor status, approvals to carry out training and aircraft airworthiness have been blamed for ultimately crippling the Australian aviation industry.[54] In October 2015, he recommended a mass exit from the industry: "I absolutely recommend that people get out of aviation as quickly as they can, sell up their businesses and close down ..."[55]
Smith has also attempted a number of well-publicised practical jokes, including the April Fool's Day attempt to tow a purported iceberg from Antarctica into Sydney Harbour in 1978, a new source of fresh water.[57] In the 1970s, Smith appeared on a pogo stick on various television programs, including Channel 9's Chris Kirby Show, as a promotional gimmick.[citation needed] In the early 1980s, Dick Smith organised the humorous promotional stunt in which a London double-decker bus jumped 16 motorcycles,[58] an inversion of Evel Knievel's 1979 motorcycle jump over buses during an Australian visit.[59] The bus was driven by adventurer Hans Tholstrup and Smith, who had been set up as its conductor, decided at the last minute to stay on board during the jump.[60][61]
In 1980, Smith provided the research for Kookaburra, the most compelling story in Australia's aviation history, written by Pedr Davis.[62]
In 1983, Smith's The Earth Beneath Me, which described the first two-thirds, from the US to Sydney, of his solo helicopter flight around the world, was published.[63] Two documentaries were also filmed during the flight, and a third one soon after.
In 1984, Smith authored a 79-page booklet arguing the need for an independent committee of review into the Department of Aviation. He urged the establishment of the Aviation Committee of Review Proposal (ACORP).[64]
Smith's Our Fantastic Planet: Circling the globe via the poles, published in 1991, is his account of his Twin Otter circumnavigation.[65]
In his 1992 work, "Dick Smith Solo Around the World", he writes of his round the world flight in his Jetranger helicopter and first successful helicopter flight to the North Pole.[66]
In 1997, Smith covered his latest helicopter circumnavigation of the world, this time east to west in a Sikorsky, in his Above the World: A Pictorial Circumnavigation.[67]
In June 2011, his polemic challenging the growth is good principle, Dick Smith's Population Crisis: The dangers of unsustainable growth for Australia was published.[68]
In December 2015, Smith's book, Balls Pyramid: Climbing the World's Tallest Sea Stack, a comprehensive and detailed history of climbs, including his own, on this remote and uniquely spectacular 562 metres (1,844 ft) tall volcanic remnant 20 km south-west of Lord Howe Island, was published.[69]
Having achieved success in his business, Smith started making charitable donations in 1971, the first notable one being to Dr Antony Kidman, father of Nicole Kidman.[5]
Beginning with his first charter in February 1977, Smith's Antarctic flights (operated by QANTAS) had raised A$70,000 for charities including the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife (then of New South Wales) and Australian Museum over the following year. Many o
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