Charles Ulm (1898-1934) began work as a clerk in a stockbroking office after he left school, but enlisted under a false identity in the 1st Battalion of the AIF just before his 16th birthday. He was amongst the first troops to land at Gallipoli, where he was wounded; in 1918, serving on the Western Front, he was wounded again. After the war he returned to Sydney to pursue his vision of establishing successful commercial airlines, and proved a capable and energetic administrator. When he co-piloted the Southern Cross from California to Brisbane, he had not yet obtained a pilot's licence. However, he went on to make several more record-breaking flights, both with Kingsford Smith in Southern Cross, and in command of his own aircraft, Faith in Australia. Ulm's Airspeed Envoy Stella Australis went down in the sea between California and Hawaii. His body was never found.
