A French Moth.

John,
A silver/blue livery with the tricolor band on the tail seems really right to me. You may compare with the photos of “Safari II” on this page :
http://www.crezan.net/raids/sibour_tdm_1.html
“Safari II” is said by Violette has wearing a cobalt blue/silver livery, and I would not be surprised that they kept the same colours.
Michel

Ref post 5

The Morane company received a licence for the Moth in November 1929 I believe because of tax laws the Moth had to be built in France to compete with contemporaries such as the Caudron 271.

John

Michel
Unfortunately the picture is of poor quality and I cannot bring out any more detail than you can see on screen. As to the colours I think the airframe is possibly Silver and the letters match the lower band of the tri-colour, colours on the rudder. It is possible that this is Ortho film so that the dark coloured band is the Red one, which would mean the letters, as you suggest are Blue. Would you agree?

Thank you again for your help.

Regards

John

John,

Here are a general view and two of the badges as painted later on the Sibour’s F291 (for the first time in 1931, but having been damaged in Russia, they were repainted in 1932) as souvenirs of their former travels :

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I think that the camel was inspired by some local badge, probably in Egypt (Cairo) but I have not found the possible origin until now. Besides the Chinese cockade, the others are mainly military units (Benghazi, Tripoli, Shaibah, Aden, Saigon) or associations (the “Quiet Birdmen” badge for Seattle).

I don’t know the colours of the DH60M F-AJKT, but the general aspect and the tone of the letters appear very similar to the cobalt blue formerly used for their silver/blue “Safari II” G-EBZR.

Many thanks for the possibility to use this image. I missed such one, and the resolution is sufficient for me.
On another hand I would be very curious to know if a better resolution might help to interpret the badges area…

Michel

Michel
If you would like to use this picture please do I could send you a slightly higher res picture. It’s amazing what an old image kicks off as we have seen from some other threads.

John

A more detailed biography of Sibour and this full story (in French) is on my website :
– for this travel : http://www.crezan.net/raids/sibour_ethkenya.html
– Sibour’s planes : http://www.crezan.net/raids/sibour_ethkenya.html

If you have even a little French I thoroughly recommend this website. It is fascinating.

Phew, I doubt that I could have done better than that! The only remark left that I can make is that it appears that it was not a Morane produced Moth but a UK manufactured Moth sold through the Morane agency. No doubt someone more knowledgeable than me can comment on the arrangements that De Havilland had with agents outside the UK for the sale of aircraft produced by the company in the UK.

Michel,
What a splendid answer. Thank you. It is equally more pertinent as I launched a 1:48 scale plastic model kit of the DH 60M Moth this weekend at Telford Scale Model world.

I am very pleased that this photo is of interest to you as well. Would you know the colours, by any chance?

I have had it for many years and now I really can’t recall how I aquired it but it was from an english source.

Kind regards

John

A French, then Ethiopian, Moth

It’s a very interesting photo of a plane I know very well, except that I had never seen any image.
“Safari III” is the DH built DH60M c/n 1443, registered F-AJKT. It’s the third DH60 owned by Jacques de Sibour and his wife Violette (Selfridge), and the first registered in France, evidently bought trough Morane.
F-AJKT was delivered to Jacques de Sibour at Stag Lane on January 31, 1930 and he flew immediately to Paris.
On February 3, they took off to Djibouti, via Italia, Tunis, Lybia, Egypt, Sudan, Italian Somali. They spent some time to Aden; after an unsuccessful attempt to fly to Sanaa, avoiding any dangerous experience, they prefer to fly back to Djibouti having an agreement to land at Addis-Ababa under one condition : to paint Ethiopian flags on the plane. They stayed one month in Ethiopia, Jacques flying for the Negus, launching tracts above rebel tribes. Finally, the Negus bought the plane. Used at the Ethiopien pilot school, it was damaged twice and captured in bad shape by Italien troops in 36.
A more detailed biography of Sibour and this full story (in French) is on my website :
– for this travel : http://www.crezan.net/raids/sibour_ethkenya.html
– Sibour’s planes : http://www.crezan.net/raids/sibour_ethkenya.html

The photo is probably taken at one of their halts in English bases : Heliopolis, Wadi Halfa, Khartoum or Aden. I would think Cairo or Khartoum (?) because the badges.
There is more than one badge on the plane : at least 2, probably 3. These souvenirs were also painted on Sibour’s Farman 291 “Safari IV”
The camel was painted at Cairo : it’s a Camel with a palmtree before the Pyramids. Probably tied in the RAF Base, but I haven’t been able to find the meaning until now.
A little lower on the left is a lightning, insignia of the 16a Squadriglia (Benghazi).
I think there might be a third on the left, maybe the 89a Squadriglia (Tripoli) : a white bird on a blue circle.
During its stay at Aden, the DH60 was marked with a winged 8 (N°8 Squadron)
I will put the images of these badges tomorrow.
Michel

John, I haven’t forgotten. Back in France now. Will undertake a little research as soon as time permits next week.