AT WAR IN SPAIN
AEROPLANE SEPTEMBER 2017 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 93Development
Technical Details
In Service
Insights
AFRICA, INDIA
AND BRAZILDragons ZS-AEI and ’AEF
were registered to the Aircraft
Operating Company in South
Africa. ZS-AEI, the former
G-ACDM, arrived in March
1934, and was unusually
confi gured with porthole
windows and the extended
DH84M fi n. It was later
impressed into the South
African Air Force as SAAF- Arriving on 30 June
1933, ’AEF was used for a
20,000-square mile air route
survey of Northern Rhodesia,
but crashed in Johannesburg
on 29 September 1933, killing
company founder Maj William
Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick and
Sir Michael Oppenheimer.
Two more Dragons were
used in southern Africa.
ZS-AEG was registered to
African Air Transport Ltd in - Going on to see use
with Rhodesia and Nyasaland
Airways, it was re-registered
as VP-YBY in 1938 and based
at Salisbury. It was taken over
by Southern Rhodesia Air
Services in 1939. ZS-AEH
went to Stewart & Lloyds of
South Africa in November
1933, and was named Corby
in service, joining the SAAF as
1414 in March 1940.
Based in Nairobi, Kenya,
was Wilson Airways. It
operated DH84s VP-KAW and
’KBA, and offered services to
Mombasa, Zanzibar and Dar
es Salaam. G-ACKD was fl own
by the Ethiopian government
until it crashed on take-off at
Akaki in March 1936. Egypt’s
innovative Misr Airwork was
equipped with SU-ABH, ’ABI
and ’ABJ, using them to
extend its routes further afi eld
from 1933. By 1939, only one
was operational. VT-AEK and
’AEL were delivered to Indian
National Airways, leaving from
Heston on 2 November 1933.
A single DH84, PP-SPC,
went to Viação Aérea São
Paulo of Brazil. It was
delivered by W. T. Ballantyne,
de Havilland’s local
representative, who fl ew the
aircraft across the South
Atlantic with his wife as
passenger.T
he Civil War between Spanish Nationalists and
Republicans would seem an unlikely place to fi nd
Dragons, but they were involved. In 1933,
Automobiles Fernández of Barcelona bought c/n 6020
new for its Aerotaxi services, and it was ferried to Spain
in temporary marks as EC-W14 before becoming
EC-TAT on arrival. On the outbreak of war it was
requisitioned and pressed into service in Catalonia with
the Republicans.
An attempt to buy 12 more Dragons was only
partially successful, fi ve leaving the UK on 15 August- They were as follows:
Registration (c/n) Previous operator
G-ACDL (6106) Luxury Air Taxis, Worthing
G-ACEV (6023) Airwork, Heston
G-ACKC (6056) Commercial Air Hire, Croydon
G-ACKU (6066) Wrightways, CroydonG-ACNA (6067) Olley Air Services, CroydonAll arrived eventually, although ’CKU returned to
Croydon with engine trouble and was grounded with
leaking fuel tanks — fi ve-gallon tanks had been
strapped into passenger seats and stacked on the fl oor,
connected to the main tanks by rubber hoses and a
hand-pump for the non-stop fl ight to Barcelona.
The remaining aircraft of the 12 ordered never left
the UK, an export ban having been imposed.
Meanwhile, the four in Spain were fi tted with
rudimentary armament and joined the Republican ‘Red
Wings’ squadron, which operated a mixed bag of types.
On one occasion, several Dragons were part of a
bomber formation that included a Fokker F.VIIB/3m, a
Latécoère 28, six Breguet XIXs, a Vickers Vildebeest
and a DH89M (three of which had been built and
delivered in June 1936). A fi ghter escort of four
Nieuport 52s was provided.
The Dragon was an easily recognisable type, but when
a pair of Savoia-Marchetti S62 fl ying boats were
attacking Dornier Wals off Algeciras, one of them landed
in a panic on sighting an ‘enemy fi ghter’ — this proved
to be Dragon G-ACCZ of Crilly Airways, which was
running secret errands for Gen Franco! Mike HooksDragon VP-KBG of Wilson Airways in good, Imperial Airways, company at Kenya Colony, Kisumu.
G. ERIC MATSON/LIBR ARY OF CONGRESS81-94_AM_DATABASE-Sept17_cc C.indd 93 31/07/2017 11:15