Aeroplane September 2017

T

he Dragon was unusual as a

de Havilland type, as unlike

many of its brethren it was to

net few records. Construction

number 6014 was taken from the

production line and configured to

the requirements of Amy and Jim

Mollison to attempt the world

long-distance record. The first plan,

which was beset by false starts, got

the aircraft to New York, and from

there to Baghdad.

The close connection between

Amy Mollison (née Johnson) and

Edward Hillman was exemplified

when, at Hatfield, Amy and her

husband Jim used a standard

Hillman’s Dragon to practise their

high-weight take-off technique.

Registered as G-ACCV, their special Dragon was named

Seafarer, and was equipped with a stronger undercarriage

required to support three extra tanks in the cabin, which

increased the aircraft’s weight to 7,334lb. This enabled an

estimated range of 6,500 miles, even against the prevailing

winds they expected to face.

Alas Seafarer was to be dogged by troubles. On 8 June 1933,

it hit a ditch attempting a max-load take-off at Croydon and

nosed over. Repaired, another attempt was made from Pendine

Sands, Wales, since some beaches provided longer, flatter and

better weight-bearing take-off surfaces than many grass

airfields of the time. Flying west for 39 hours, Jim and Amy

were misled at Bridgeport, Connecticut, by ground activities

and lighting and attempted (without realising) to land

downwind. The Dragon overshot and was wrecked, and Jim

and Amy ended up in hospital. Patched up, they later received

a ticker-tape parade through New York.

Fuel tanks and other equipment

were re-used in G-ACJM Seafarer II,

a replacement aircraft sponsored

and shipped to North America by

Lord Wakefield of Castrol fame. The

Mollisons tried to depart from

Wasaga Beach, Georgian Bay,

Ontario on 3 October 1933, at a

maximum load of 7,334lb, but the

third take-off attempt damaged the

aircraft. Sold to Messrs J. R. Ayling

and L. Reid and renamed Trail of the

Caribou, it successfully flew the

Atlantic eastwards, leaving — again

from Wasaga Beach — on 8 August

1934. Due to excessive fuel
      consumption, the team was unable
      to reach Baghdad and beat the
      record, so they put down at Heston
      to almost no reception after 30 hours 50 minutes flying time.
      They had difficulty throttling the engines, caused by a special
      adaptation to prevent carburettor air icing, which they had not
      been able to manage properly while airborne for more than six
      hours in blind flying conditions. Ironically, on examination
      afterwards, it was found that the tanks still held enough fuel to
      have reached Baghdad. Another attempt, hoped to take place
      the following year, did not go ahead. Though not the hoped-for
      world record, Ayling and Reid’s was the first flight from
      mainland Canada to mainland Britain, Alcock and Brown having
      flown from then-independent Newfoundland to Ireland in 1919.
      The first of the improved Dragons, G-ACKU, was built for
      W. L. Everard in November 1933. The following month it was
      flown to victory in the Oases Circuit Race in Egypt by W. D.
      Macpherson. Alan Butler, chairman of de Havilland, entered a
      DH84 as number 59 in the handicap section of the 1934
      MacRobertson air race, but did not make it to the start line.

RECORDS AND RACING

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

IN SERVICE DE HAVILLAND DRAGON

operation at unmanned

airfields, and navigation lights,

for the reduced price of

£2,750. The first DH84s,

according to Flight, were sold

for £2,795 complete, or

£2,700 without cabin

equipment. A complete set of

instruments was included,

among them a turn indicator

as standard, but a radio was

an optional extra. The de

Havilland manual noted: “The

interior of the cabin is treated

with fireproof dope so that it

conforms to the Air Ministry

regulations allowing smoking

to be indulged in”. Dragons

were initially delivered with

aluminium paint on the flying

surfaces and any one colour

the customer chose (excluding

gold or white) for the fuselage,

struts and undercarriage.

Dragons were sold to

private operators such as W. L.

Everard, who owned two,

G-ACEK Leicestershire Vixen II

and G-ACKU. Commercial Air

Hire’s fleet delivered early

editions of the daily

newspapers from Croydon to

the continent, starting in 1936,

and saw use on army co-

operation night flying

contracts, working with

searchlight and other units as

international tensions grew.

Some Dragons soldiered on,

increasingly in the shadow of

later types. Air Navigation &

Trading’s G-ACIT and G-ADDI

operated at Squires Gate for

pleasure flying around

Blackpool seafront until the

1960s when the wooden

airframes started to be

regarded with suspicion by

officialdom, and maintenance

became uneconomic. G-ADDI

survives and is occasionally

flown as N34DH in Oakville,

Washington State, USA, while

G-ACIT is held by the Science

Museum in its Wroughton,

Wiltshire store. Scotland has

one Dragon in the National

Museum of Flight at East

Fortune, East Lothian, to

remember how the country

was opened up by the type,

though it is an ex-Australian

machine, VH-SNB (formerly

A34-13 and VH-ASK). Now

airworthy in Scotland,

meanwhile, is George

Cormack’s recently restored

G-ACET in Scottish Motor

Traction colours.

IRELAND

In Ireland, the newly formed

Aer Lingus started operations

on 27 May 1936 with a single

Dragon. This was the former

ABOVE: Amy and Jim Mollison with their modified

Dragon, G-ACCV Seafarer. AEROPLANE

Dragon EI-ABI Iolar was the first aircraft operated by Aer Lingus.

AEROPLANE

81-94_AM_DATABASE-Sept17_cc C.indd 90 31/07/2017 11:14