Australian question
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Join Date: Jan 2003
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Australian question
Can anyone help?
I was recently in a local branch of a well known travel agent and on the wall was a reproduction poster from I would guess the thirties advertising flights from London to Sydney in only ten and half days.
The aircraft depicted in the poster looked like a dragon rapide but with four engines rather than the normal two. I have tried searching for it on the net but have so far drawn a blank. (found plenty about riley doves and drovers but nothing earlier)
Did this machine really exist or was it just artistic license for a good looking sales poster?
Jeppsbore
I was recently in a local branch of a well known travel agent and on the wall was a reproduction poster from I would guess the thirties advertising flights from London to Sydney in only ten and half days.
The aircraft depicted in the poster looked like a dragon rapide but with four engines rather than the normal two. I have tried searching for it on the net but have so far drawn a blank. (found plenty about riley doves and drovers but nothing earlier)
Did this machine really exist or was it just artistic license for a good looking sales poster?
Jeppsbore
Join Date: Nov 2002
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By chance the DH.86 Express? Four Gypsy Six engines. First flight 1934. Holyman's lost one in October '34. Qantas's first crashed on the delivery flight the next month. A total of 62 built in three versions. The later versions were more stable.
Join Date: Mar 2000
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Yep DH.86. For a good account of the long trip down to Oz in one of these machines have a read of "Three Decades a Pilot. The Third Generation" by Wilfred Emm (ISBN 0-946771-97-9)
A fantastic book about the early days of commercial operations.
A fantastic book about the early days of commercial operations.
