large crowd at Sydney's Mascot Aerodrome in June 1928 to welcome the Southern Cross and its crew following their successful trans-Pacific flight. Witnessing this event inspired Byrne to make a 1:24 scale model of the Southern Cross, made mostly from brass finished in gold and silver plating. Kingsford Smith disappeared before Byrne had completed the model. After Kingsford Smith's disappearance, Byrne continued to expand and enhance his tribute with paintings, photographs, documents, and art works he created, designed or commissioned. Between 1930 and his death in 1993, Byrne devoted his life to creating and touring his Southern Cross Memorial. A full-sized flying reproduction of the Southern Cross was built in South Australia between 1980 and 1987, and is the largest known reproduction aircraft in the world. Sergeant Anthony Lohrey of the Royal Australian Air Force, Aircraft Research and Development Unit (ARDU) oversaw its construction. On 25 May 2002 at Parafield South Australia she lost a main wheel on takeoff. The replica was landed on the one good wheel and the tail-skid with the pilot keeping the damaged undercarriage off the ground by keeping the wing high in the air. When the aircraft stopped the wing came down and snapped off ~3 m of the wing tip. After considerable negotiation the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) acquired the aircraft from the SA Government in 2010, and the aircraft was transported to HARS facility at Illawarra Regional Airport, Albion Park, New South Wales. The replica aircraft is being restored to full airworthy status by HARS volunteers. This will include restoration of the handcrafted all-wooden spruce and plywood wing. The aircraft carries the original registration of VH-USU. Notes The Southern Cross'''s original registration was "1985" – this number can be seen on the wings and tail of the aircraft in photos taken at the time of its first record-breaking flight. Kingsford Smith re-registered it in Australia as "G-AUSU" (4 July 1928 to 3 July 1929), and then "VH-USU" (5 April 1931 – ). The "1985" marks and original colour scheme were restored when the plane went on public display. The Southern Cross was named after the Southern Cross constellation, a popular symbol of the Southern Hemisphere in general and Australia in particular. Kingsford Smith continued the theme with his later aircraft Southern Cross Minor and Southern Cross Junior (both Avro Avians), Miss Southern Cross (Percival Gull), and Lady Southern Cross (Lockheed Altair). He