Airworthy DH88 Comet project in NZ?

LOL! Yep I know David – us Beech chaps have been chatting in a more esoteric manner of late, about a ‘legacy’ project – I mean dont get me wrong, if we put the Beech and three T-6s in the air we’ve done our ‘bit’ for historic aviation I suppose…but to restore such a rare and important aircraft such as G-ACSP – well, that truly would be a legacy to hand on, if you know what I mean….

Sorry, it was turning 30 last week thats done it…

TT

Texan -the problem is that to achieve ‘priceless’ status you need to inject vast sums of money!

Sorry the colours of Black Magic always do it for me….black and gold…mmmmm and to think the project was available for ‘only’ £15k a few years ago…..if i had the money then……Christ knows what she’ll be worth when restored- priceless i imagine!

TT

Dave, etc,

I believe the taxi-ing Southern Cross replica is last recorded as being in storage with the Museum of Army Aviation at Oakey in QLD

setter should be able to confirm that 🙂

regards

Mark P

James, was the taxiing Fokker the same replica that later flew, before it was capable? Or was it a seperate mock-up? If seperate, what happened to it? Was it given/sold to a museum?

Not the same replica, this was a taxiing only one. What happened to it I don’t know. Maybe one of the other Aussie contributors can tell us?

Putnam for the following:

G-ACSP Black Magic retired from the MacRobertson race at Allahabad. Sold to Portugal as CS-AAJ Salazar

G-ACSR 4th un-named. Named Reine Astrid delivered Christmas mail to Congo. Sold to French govt on return as F-ANPY.

G-ACSS Grosvenor House Ist. To Martlesham as K5084. Sold for scrap but rescued by F.E. Tasker and rebuilt by Essex Aero as The Orphan and used for more races. Renamed again as The Burberry and used to break the out-and-back Cape record. Renamed again as Australian Anniversary and used to set a record to Australia and back. When my copy of the book was published (1978) the record still stood.

F-ANPZ Built to French govt order as a mailplane. First aeroplane with airframe, engines and propellors all D.H. built.

G-ADEF Boomerang. Set a Cairo and back record but was later abandoned by parachute over the Sudan.

James, was the taxiing Fokker the same replica that later flew, before it was capable? Or was it a seperate mock-up? If seperate, what happened to it? Was it given/sold to a museum?

‘The Great Air Race’ was a good series done as well as circs allowed. Like ‘A Thousand Skies’ I think both tell the stories well, though there’s technical comprimises which are understandable. They do as well as they can with what was obtainable. For the nitpickers, DC-3 as the DC-2 Uiver, taxiing replica for the Comet, Boeng 247 ’57’ represented by an Avro Anson (VH-BAF IIRC) various other period aircraft and a Stearman as the Fairey Fox ‘New Guinea Goldfields’ entry.

However, they are all ‘close enough’ if you can follow trhe story rather than count the rivets. And what a story it is.

I’d also recommend ‘A Thousand Skies’ on Sir C Kingsford Smith – accurate enough with a couple of minor changes. Taxiing replica and large model for ‘The Old Bus’ Fokker, replica Bristols Tourers, and a Harvard as the Lockheed Altair. In both mini-series Australia stood in for most of the foreign scenes, which is obvious if you know, and not so bad if you don’t.

Frankly, they are both trying to tell important aviation history well, and thus leave clart* like Pearl Harbor etc far behind.

G-ACSS was in silver overall with RAF Roundels and serial in RAF use – nice, but not spectacular.

Cheers

*TM AiB

The Great Air Race – DVD

Thanks chaps. I remember that re-enactment of the air race now Was it a documentary, or was it a mini-series? Or were both made? I’m sure I saw a dramatised mini-series about it. May have wires crossed there, I might be thinking of A Thousand Skies about Kingsford Smith. I think the air race one had an Anson done up as a Boeing too, didn’t it?

I just noticed that “The Great Air Race” is available as a DVD on amazon.com (US site) – is it worth ordering?

I don’t think G-ACSP was ever actually used for postal use. It was used for ‘friendship’ flights – in particular to Brazil with the name Salazar and the registration CS-AAJ. After that she went on Portuguese Air Force charge for a very short while.

DH88 Colours…

In terms of colours used for DH88s wouldn’t it be good to see something even more unusual than Black Magic or Grosvenor house. The basic colour for G-ACSR was green, this aircraft subsequently crashed the Sahara desert I think. How about the colours of Black Magic when the portgese used her for its postal service. Finally what about the colours used when the RAF trialled the aircraft (don’t know which of the DH88s were used for this although I do know it wasn’t Black Magic…it even had an RAF registration given to it I believe).

Here is the replica at Hatfield
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/877134/M/

Photo TZ Aviation on Airliners.net

“I think the air race one had an Anson done up as a Boeing too, didn’t it?”

Ah,well remembered.Yep,that’s the one.

Thanks chaps. I remember that re-enactment of the air race now Was it a documentary, or was it a mini-series? Or were both made? I’m sure I saw a dramatised mini-series about it. May have wires crossed there, I might be thinking of A Thousand Skies about Kingsford Smith. I think the air race one had an Anson done up as a Boeing too, didn’t it?

Thanks for the feedback DH90,and the very best of luck with the project,it’ll be great to have perhaps three airworthy examples in the future. Perhaps it’s a bit soon to be thinking about such things,but what colour scheme do you intend to finish her in?Will she be another Grovesner House?
Dave,of the five originals built, Grovesner House (G-ACSS) is airworthy with the Shuttleworth Collection,although it hasn’t flown regularly for a while. The remains of Black Magic (G-ACSP) are currently under long-term restoration to fly,although as I understand it, it will be largely new-build. The replica in the US is the only other flying example at the moment,dressed up as Grovesner House.
Additionally,there are a couple of static replicas,one dangling from the ceiling of a shopping centre on the old airfield site at Hatfield,and another currently with the DH museum at London Colney. The museum’s example was built for an Aussie TV documentary about the MacRobertson race about 15 years ago,and from what i’ve seen of the bits and pieces it’s very convincing,including very deceptive fibre-glass engines! The museum are currently restoring it and detailing it even further,hence why I’ve only seen it in bits.

5 real Comets were built. There are 2 survivors, Grosvenor House and Black Magic.

Replicas I’ve no idea.

I’ve been trying to find out via Google but can’t find any definitives. How many real Comets were made? And how many exist today – both genuine and replica?

Are any currently flying anywhere?

And, am I right in remembering that “Black Magic” was once owned or part owned by a New Zealander?

The Comet will at this time be similar to the US machine, the US Comet has washout induced to eliminate the tip stalling tendency (but from what I here it hasnt really changed things that much) but I dont think it has a different airfoil section to the original.
We will try and keep the cockpit as original as we can (with very little to go on its kind of difficult) with no modern instrumentation if at all possible.
The undercarriage will be based on a modern retract with modern brakes to improve ground handling.
All of the above mods along with anything else done will be to make the aircraft something which is usable, from the outside represents a significant piece of aviation history which can be showed on a regular basis at airshows etc etc, but will be a much more useable aircraft so as not to sit in the back of a hanger for most of its life.

At present it will be a fairly long term project, but I am hoping to move things along a bit, as you can imagine it is a bit of a money pit but I think quite worth it in the long term.

Many thanks for the info and pics DH90,she’s looking mouthwatering even at this early stage. How faithful is this this replica likely to be to the original? I know the US replica has a different NACA profile to the original in order to improve the handling slightly,will this one be the same?

As promised, some shots of the Comet replica.
Hopefully we will be doing a little more work on it in the near future.
I am under the impression that the replica in the US has changed hands recently and have been trying to get hold of the owner (unsuccessfully), if someone could give me a contact it would be great, the people at Wings of History dont seem to answer any emails and this was the last to have a connection.