Skip to main content
Smith’s greatest achievement in the air was a 17,000-mile solo journey from London to Hong Kong in 1931-1932. In the spring of 1931, he purchased an amphibious biplane, a Savoia-Marchetti S-56-C, customized to have a single seat and extra fuel capacity. After several false starts, Smith began his flight in London in December 1931, landing outside of Paris. He then flew south over Italy and the Mediterranean until he reached North Africa. From there, he followed airline routes already established by British fliers, traveling across the Syrian Desert from Gaza to Baghdad and on to India.
In the log, Smith Reynolds records not only equipment and flight data but also his impressions and experiences in the places he landed. He recorded sightings of the Coliseum in Rome, pyramids in Egypt, the Taj Mahal by moonlight, maharajas, fortune tellers, and a one-ring circus in Indochina. In his open cockpit, Smith faced extreme cold, sandstorms, perilous mountain peaks, engine failure, botched water landings, and the prolonged solitude of the three month journey. He crossed deserts, guided only by camel paths, where, he wrote, a “forced landing would be as good as death” because the desert was “ terrifically cold at night.” Between Bangkok and Hanoi, he was forced to pitch much of his baggage overboard in order to gain the altitude he needed to fly over the mountains.
After his landing at Fort Bayard, a French military base in present-day Zhanjiang, China, Smith recorded his final log entry on April 5, 1932. His world record flight failed to be registered because he chose not to commence and end it with official witnesses. Smith ended his flight in Hong Kong, meeting up with his wife Libby Holman. The couple returned to Winston-Salem to stay at Reynolda before a planned move to New York. Smith’s accomplishments in the air were soon overshadowed by his death a few months later. In the words of the local paper, Smith was “a boy who flew through a short span of life on the wings of adventure.”
ProvenanceZ. Smith Reynolds’s handwritten log of his 1931-1932 transcontinental flight in the Aeroplane NR-898W was made available to Reynolda House Museum of American Art by Smith Reynolds's grandson Lloyd P. (“Jock”) Tate Jr. and his wife Kathryn B. Tate.
DepartmentEstate Archives
Log of Aeroplane NR-898W
Date1931-1932
MediumDocument
Credit LineReynolda House Museum of American Art Archives
Object numberEA-2017-002
DescriptionThis handwritten log kept by Z. Smith Reynolds documents his 17,000-mile solo journey from England to China from August 26, 1931 to April 5, 1932. The youngest child of R.J. and Katharine Reynolds, Zachary Smith Reynolds (1911-1932) won fame as a stunt pilot, rubbed elbows with celebrity pilots, married twice, and completed the world’s longest point-to-point solo flight. Smith earned his private pilot’s license at the age of 16 and became the youngest licensed transport pilot in the country. The newspapers advertised Smith’s performances in “flying circuses” and reported on the record-breaking speed of his 1930 flight from New York to Los Angeles. Smith’s greatest achievement in the air was a 17,000-mile solo journey from London to Hong Kong in 1931-1932. In the spring of 1931, he purchased an amphibious biplane, a Savoia-Marchetti S-56-C, customized to have a single seat and extra fuel capacity. After several false starts, Smith began his flight in London in December 1931, landing outside of Paris. He then flew south over Italy and the Mediterranean until he reached North Africa. From there, he followed airline routes already established by British fliers, traveling across the Syrian Desert from Gaza to Baghdad and on to India.
In the log, Smith Reynolds records not only equipment and flight data but also his impressions and experiences in the places he landed. He recorded sightings of the Coliseum in Rome, pyramids in Egypt, the Taj Mahal by moonlight, maharajas, fortune tellers, and a one-ring circus in Indochina. In his open cockpit, Smith faced extreme cold, sandstorms, perilous mountain peaks, engine failure, botched water landings, and the prolonged solitude of the three month journey. He crossed deserts, guided only by camel paths, where, he wrote, a “forced landing would be as good as death” because the desert was “ terrifically cold at night.” Between Bangkok and Hanoi, he was forced to pitch much of his baggage overboard in order to gain the altitude he needed to fly over the mountains.
After his landing at Fort Bayard, a French military base in present-day Zhanjiang, China, Smith recorded his final log entry on April 5, 1932. His world record flight failed to be registered because he chose not to commence and end it with official witnesses. Smith ended his flight in Hong Kong, meeting up with his wife Libby Holman. The couple returned to Winston-Salem to stay at Reynolda before a planned move to New York. Smith’s accomplishments in the air were soon overshadowed by his death a few months later. In the words of the local paper, Smith was “a boy who flew through a short span of life on the wings of adventure.”
ProvenanceZ. Smith Reynolds’s handwritten log of his 1931-1932 transcontinental flight in the Aeroplane NR-898W was made available to Reynolda House Museum of American Art by Smith Reynolds's grandson Lloyd P. (“Jock”) Tate Jr. and his wife Kathryn B. Tate.
Status
On viewCollections
circa 1928
