DH88 Comet Racer

there is a full scale one in the USA flying.

Also the Dh 88 doesnt like coming back down to earth, but i dont know if this would continue if the aircraft was smaller.

Awesome Dh88 Comet

I have always liked the De Havilland made aeroplanes. Dragon Rapide Dh89 was a wonderful looking AC and still is.

Wonder if the Racer could be made as a single seater in for instance 2/5 scale ? Was it ok to fly or was it pure racer with some menace habits ?

We had actually had dry weather for the open day on 3rd May. Could this be a first for a bank holiday in the UK? As far as the members who conducted the tours were concerned it was a success. I know at least a couple of forum members made the journey to Derby to see the project so thank you to them for making the effort, and to everyone else of course, and I hope you enjoyed it.

While the fuselage was turned the correct way up again (with the bottom cowl fitted) some new photographs were taken which will appear on the web site soon…and I will try to update it a little more regularly when time and progress allows.

For anyone that missed the 3rd we have the last ‘official’ open day of the year on the 14th June, however the project is always available to see on any airfield open days, fly-ins or perhaps a celebration of the anniversary of the race later in the year (assuming that there is a member free to show you round of course or you have the time to wait until there is).

If anyone has any feedback from the day feel free to let me know…we may be able to incorporate changes or additions to the next open day.

Forgot to mention we have a number of old books and some plastic kits which will be on sale this weekend to help raise funds.

Ken

I have never seen any pictures of all the bits that John Pierce recovered from Portugal, I do know that some parts were lost when he had a fire at his place.
At the end of the video we are showing this weekend there is a TV interview with the previous owner of the parts, Nick Hemmings, where he shows the project all laid out and describes his plans for it. He coudnt get the funding which is how we managed to get it.

I have a cutting from Aeroplane from June 1988 which does show the project all laid out at that time and this is the same as on our video.

Ken

Out of interest Ken are there any pictures of the remains that were found in Portugal at all?

Just interested to see what you had to start of with. A nice www and a stunning project. I Wish you the best with it.

Just thought I would put a post to put this topic back at the top again in case anyone hasnt seen it, and also to say that we also have the new engine mounts on display and one of the new DH propellers as well.

Ken

there were 5 Comets built of which 3 were for the race but only 2 originals survive. G-ACSS at Old Warden and G-ACSP which is under restoration at Derby from the remains found a number of years ago in Portugal, please have a look at the web site for more details at..

www.cometracer.co.uk

Ken

Please feel free to correct me but I thought there was only one comet racer and it is located in the Shuttleworth collection near Biggleswade.

I have not ever seen it fly, I suspect the runway length could be an issue.

Dave forgot to mention that we will be having a TV and video set up to show the original Pathe News films of the start of the race and the finish in Australia, with interviews with Scott and Black. If you havent seen them its well worth a visit just for them.

You can also see the progress on the fuselage with the front lower fuselage cowling almost finished.. we have gone for the original type of construction as opposed to fibreglass. The cockpit also has some of the newly finished controls in place.

I hope many of you can come, there are also some interesting light aeroplanes based at the airfield to look at.

Ken

just to remind anyone who is interested…the first open day for the Comet Racer Project (Black Magic) is this sunday (3rd) from 1-4. If you are interested see the web site for the address and contact number for Derby Airfield….

www.cometracer.co.uk

Hope to see some of you there

Thanks for that!!-i’ll be going, anyway!

wasn’t sure if I was allowed to…should come up in search engines but here it is anyway www.cometracer.co.uk

A link to the website might be helpful …… ???

Planemike