Aeroplane September 2017

88 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE SEPTEMBER 2017

IN SERVICE DE HAVILLAND DRAGON

T

he fi rst Dragon was

re-fi nished in Hillman’s

Airways’ colours and

registered G-ACAN,

with fl eet number 7 on the

nacelles. It went to Hillman’s

on 20 December 1932, when it

was christened Maylands after

the airline’s home airfi eld near

Romford, Essex by Amy

Mollison (née Johnson). The

type’s inaugural commercial

fl ight took place on 1 April

1933, at the start of the new

summer season, when the fi rst

four Dragons were ready to

enter service together. This

betrays a remarkably brief

testing period and suggests

satisfaction with the design

right off the drawing board

— no mean achievement then,

Opening new airline markets

or now. It was a success from

the start.

The Dragons operated by

Hillman’s soon had their

baggage compartments

removed in favour of two more

seats, taking the passenger

enable higher-volume traffi c.

Two further Dragons followed.

DH84 services rendered more

attractive the route operated

by the three-passenger Fox

Moths from Maylands to Le

Bourget, Paris.

Paris. Undercutting the fares of

all competing companies, he

made his own company pay

without the help of any

subsidy, giving almost a

hundred per cent regularity

and safety, although his

passengers did not get quite

the same degree of comfort as

they had on other lines.

‘Second-class air travel’ he

called his service, and an

excellent idea it was too.”

The Dragons were ideal for

extending Britain’s effective

rail and bus routes to areas

where trains and coaches

could not go or were too slow,

particularly the mountainous

environment of Scotland and

its islands, and across the sea

to the continent and Ireland.

Railway Air Services, building

on this idea, was one of the

main British operators, with a

fl eet of nine Dragon IIs

operating Liverpool-

Birmingham-Cardiff-Plymouth

and Birmingham-Bristol-Isle of

Wight. An Australian-built

Dragon, Torquil Norman’s

G-ECAN, is a regular at UK

airshows in Railway Air

Services colours; it will be

auctioned by Bonhams at the

Goodwood Revival meeting

this September.

The fi rst Dragon II, G-ACMC, was

delivered to Jersey Airways in December

1933 and named St Brelade’s Bay. AEROPLANE

ABOVE: Highland Airways’ G-ADCT being recovered by post boat

from Rousay for repair. TOMMY GIBSON

The Dragons were ideal for extending Britain’s

rail and bus routes to areas where trains or

coaches could not go or were too slow

number up to eight. Initial

performance pleased Hillman,

as the aircraft achieved a

consumption of just 13 gallons

of fuel per hour’s fl ying. The

company paid its bus drivers

and pilots the same wage, and

pared fares to the bone to

Amy Mollison was among

the pilots fl ying for Hillman’s

on its Dragons, one of only

two regular jobs she was able

to get — in this case as a

volunteer — despite being the

British Empire’s most famous

woman aviator. She fl ew the

London-Paris daily service for

a few weeks in 1934. Five

years later, she remembered

her time there: “Never shall I

forget the late Edward Hillman

[he died later in 1934 at the

age of 45], the ‘bus conductor

of the air’ as he was often

called. A ‘rough diamond’, but

a most sound businessman, he

had made a small fortune with

his bus service. Then seeing a

future in the air, he sold his

business and converted

everything into an airline to

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