During his brief 38 years of life, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith (1897-1935) was one of the most celebrated public idols in history, becoming for a few years in the late 20s and early 30s a legend across the world for his brilliance as a pilot and his charismatic style among the pioneers of long-distance flying. The first person to fly an aircraft across the Pacific from America to Australia (in 1928) he broke many solo flying records, and this brought him a status greater than any modern astronaut - a crowd of 300,000 greeted him in Sydney. But the price of his heroism was high and the demands for celebrity and a messy private life ended in tragedy off the coast of Burma in 1935 in an attempt to fly from England to Australia. This biography explores his life and flying career.