Charles Thomas Philippe Ulm was a soldier, aviator, company manager and airline owner best known for his partnership with Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, but who also set a number of his own flight records over a short career. He has been described as a practical visionary with a keen sense of humor, who displayed “… extraordinary precision in thought and courage in adversity”.

Charles Ulm was born on 18 October 1898 at Middle Park, Melbourne, and was educated at state schools initially in Melbourne and later in Sydney after his family moved interstate. He was working as a clerk in a stockbroking office when World War I broke out. Despite being only 16, he enlisted in the 1st Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, on 16 September 1914, claiming to be 20 years of age. Charles was among the first troops to land at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. His stay was short-lived; wounded in action within days he returned to Australia where he was discharged for being a minor. He re-enlisted in January 1917 and served on the Western Front until being badly wounded in July 1918.

After being demobilised in March 1919, Charles returned to Australia with some £3,000 proceeds of an investment and a vision of becoming involved in commercial aviation. This interest led him to support a number of fledgling aviation companies which did not prosper. In November 1919, he married Isabel Amy Winter whom he later divorced before marrying Mary Josephine “Jo” Callaghan in 1927.

That year, Charles became a partner in Interstate Flying Services with Keith Anderson and Charles Kingsford Smith; their goal being to fly across the Pacific Ocean. Charles‘s role was to arrange the financial and administrative aspects of the ventures. Before embarking on the US journey, Ulm and Kingsford Smith circumnavigated Australia in 10 days, five hours and 30 minutes. It was less than half the time of the record set by Captain Edgar Charles Johnston Jones and Colonel Horace Brinsmead in 1924.

In August 1927, Ulm, Kingsford Smith and Anderson travelled to California to look for an aircraft and additional sponsorship for the trans-Pacific journey. They found a Fokker aircraft and the Boeing Aircraft Factory assisted with alterations, including installing three Wright Whirlwind engines and extra fuel tanks.

On 31 May 1928, the aircraft, renamed Southern Cross, took off from Oakland, California, with Kingsford Smith as pilot, Charles as co-pilot and two American crew members, Harry Lyon and James Warner, on board. Ten days later, on 9 June 1928, the Southern Cross and crew arrived in Brisbane, completing the 11,585 kilometre crossing in 83 hours, 38 minutes of flying time. Several days later, the Prime Minister, Stanley Bruce, presented the crew with a £5000 cheque “from the people of Australia”. Charles and Kingsford Smith were awarded honorary commissions in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF): Kingsford Smith as an honorary Squadron Leader and Charles as Flight Lieutenant. Both were awarded the Air Force Cross.

In August 1928, they made the first non-stop flight across Australia, from Melbourne to Perth, and the following month, in extreme weather conditions, made the first trans-Tasman flight from Sydney to Christchurch, New Zealand, in 14 hours.

After the New Zealand flight, Charles finally received his pilot’s licence and in December 1928 he and Kingsford Smith formed Australian National Airways Limited (ANA) with the aim of operating unsubsidized passenger, mail and freight services. In March 1929 on a flight to Britain to acquire aircraft, Charles, Charles Kingsford Smith and two crew members, low on fuel, were forced to land the Southern Cross in a desolate area of the West Australian coast and were lost for thirteen days. After being found, they resumed the flight to Britain.