Aeroplane September 2017

(Brent) #1
AEROPLANE SEPTEMBER 2017 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 89

Development


Technical Details


In Service


Insights


IN SERVICE DE HAVILLAND DRAGON


in February 1940 when
approaching Dalcross airport,
Inverness. Again, the
passengers and pilot survived,
but this time the Dragon was
beyond economic repair.
In March 1933, de Havilland
advertised that 24 Dragons
had been sold. Seven months
after the type’s introduction
into service, the fi gure had
risen to 43. While these
numbers may not seem that
remarkable today, it was
exceptional for the period,
and even more notable given
that the effects of the 1929
Wall Street crash were being
experienced globally.
In its airline round-up of 10
January 1935, Flight amply
illustrated how much DH84s
had opened up air routes
across (and beyond) the UK.
The journal reported, “the
British Air Navigation Co Ltd,
apart from their extensive
charter work, have operated
between Heston and Le

Touquet, Deauville and
Dieppe, the second of the
services being in the nature of
an experiment. During the
season 1,484 passengers were
carried”. Furthermore, “From
1 May to 1 September
Blackpool and West Coast Air
Services Ltd carried no fewer
than 3,762 passengers and
some 40,000lb of newspapers
on a twice-daily service
between Liverpool, Blackpool,
and the Isle of Man, using a
DH Dragon — an increase of
100 per cent on the 1933
fi gures. Regularity was 99.6
per cent, and a daily service is
being maintained throughout
the winter.”
One outstanding
achievement even for this
radical era was that of Jersey
Airways. Originally established
in 1933 with a capital of
£20,000, a proving fl ight was
carried out on 15 December
that year using its fi rst Dragon,
G-ACMJ, with just the airline’s
executives aboard. That
December, there were 80
bookings from Jersey alone,
so the airline immediately
borrowed two additional
Dragons from other operators,
pending delivery of more of its
own. A single fare of 32s 6d
was offered from Portsmouth
to Jersey, with a round trip at
55s.
Flight charted the carrier’s
subsequent growth: “The rise
to prominence of Jersey
Airways Ltd, though
remarkable, might, perhaps,
have been prophesied in view
of the considerable saving of
time. Started with a single
Dragon between Portsmouth
and St Helier on 18 December
1933, the Heston-Portsmouth-
Jersey service has been fi lling

In the north, the Scottish
Motor Traction Company had
one Dragon in readiness for
ambulance trips to the
Western Isles. Highland
Airways (with four Dragons)
and Aberdeen Airways (three,
operating from Dyce)
established viable routes and
soon merged into Scottish
Airways. In 1933, DH84s
replaced Fox Moths on the
routes of Midland and Scottish
Air Ferries. Northern and
Scottish Airways was founded
with one Dragon operating
from Renfrew, Campbeltown,
Islay and the Outer Hebrides.
The intensity of usage was
high, and technical support
limited, but even so Dragon
airline operations were
remarkably safe by the
standards of the time. DH84s
were often the fi rst aircraft of
their size to fl y into and out of
marginal, recently adapted
airfi elds. Sometimes,
inevitably, they came to grief.
Dragon G-ADCT of Highland
Airways crashed on approach
to Trumland airfi eld on Rousay
Island, Scotland. The pilot,
John Rae, had his head
pushed through the
windscreen, but he and the
passengers escaped major
injury, even though the
Dragon came to rest against
the wall of Westness House’s
vegetable garden. The Dragon
was dismantled and shipped
in sections by post boat to
Kirkwall, where it was rebuilt
and fl ew again, until crashing

eight machines daily during
the season, and six fully
equipped DH86s were
ordered in November for this
year’s operations. Despite the
diffi culties caused by the fact
that the beach is used as a
landing ground at St Helier,
necessitating a continually
changing timetable, 18,530
passengers were carried up to
10 November, and even in the
winter the weekly average has
been in the region of 250.
During the season an average
of 4.5 passengers per trip was
carried. In July a bi-weekly
Paris service was run from
Jersey, but this year the trip
will be made to Rennes, an
important railway junction for
the north of France. From 31
September onwards a daily
service to Jersey has been
continued”. In the 1934
season, the airline carried
19,761 passengers.
A year after the Dragon’s
rapid airline introduction, and
following quick initial sales, a
de Havilland advertisement in
The Aeroplane’s last issue of
1933 estimated that one
million miles had been fl own
by DH84s around the world. It
boasted that the strengthened
‘1934 Dragon’ (now known as
the Dragon II) was capable of
carrying a greater payload and
complied with ICNA (Ingénieur
du Contrôle de la Navigation
Aérienne) requirements. The
Dragon came with electric
engine starters, effectively
enabling safe, single-crew

RAF IMPRESSMENTS


S


eventeen Dragons were impressed into the RAF
inventory upon the outbreak of war. No 3 School of
General Reconnaissance at Squires Gate operated
G-ADOS, the former Smith’s showroom, alongside BA
Eagle ES948/G-AEKI, while fi ve other DH84s were with No
24 Squadron at Hendon: X9395/G-ACIU (c/n 6041), which
was lost at Mourmelon, France, in April 1940,
X9396/G-ACMJ (6058) and AV982/G-AECZ (6105), plus two
that escaped formal impressment, G-ACJT (6043) and ’DDI
(6096). The former was written off in a crash at Weston on
20 December 1939, while ’DDI was sold to Vickers and
survived the war. It was used on charter work at Croydon
by Air Charter Ltd, owned by Freddie Laker, who was to
make his name some years later with rather larger
equipment! Nos 6 and 7 Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Units at
Ringway, Manchester and Castle Bromwich, Birmingham
employed Dragons as well. Mike Hooks

ABOVE: Dragon G-ACEV was in the Hillman’s fl eet until August 1936.
AEROPLANE

81-94_AM_DATABASE-Sept17_cc C.indd 89 31/07/2017 11:14

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