DH88 Comet Racer uncovered - Shuttleworth Engineering Open Day 2022

Up close with The Shuttleworth Collection’s De Havilland DH88 Comet, during the Engineering Open Days 2022. Includes the undercarriage being cycled, shots of other accessible parts stills of the pilot’s operational check list. The DH88 was produced by De Havilland Aircraft Company as a British entry for the 1934 MacRobertson Air Race between England and Australia. Initial cost estimates were £50,000 per aircraft. De Havilland financed the project for prestige and research data. Each aircraft was sold for £5,000, provided they were ordered before February 1934. Three were ordered for the race, the first being E-1 (G-ACSP) which flew on 8th September 1934, six weeks before the start. Designed by Arthur Hagg, it was powered by two 230 hp Gipsy Six R engines, driving Ratier two-position propellers that changed the pitch from fine to coarse automatically as airspeed increased. Two crew would sit in tandem behind three large fuel tanks giving a range of nearly 3,000 miles. The airframe had a retractable undercarriage to enhance aerodynamics and its light-weight construction came from it being made mostly of wood. The only metal used within the fuselage was for load bearing components. The three ’Race Planes’ were the black and gold liveried ‘Black Magic’ (G-ACSP), flown by Jim and Amy Mollinson (nee Amy Johnson); the British Racing green (G-ACSR), flown by Owen Cathcart and Ken Waller although the aircraft was actually paid for by racing driver Bernard Rubin, and the red and white (G-ACSS) ‘Grosvenor House’ flown by CWA Scott and Tom Campbell Black, which was named by its owner (Mr AO Edwards) after the London Hotel where he was Managing Director. The race set off on 20th October 1934 from RAF Mildenhall with a large entry of racing, commercial and private aircraft. Both ’Black Magic’ (G-ACSP) and ’Grosvenor House’ (G-ACSS) flew to Baghdad non-stop. Although the Mollinsons led in Black Magic during the early stages, it was ’Grosvenor House’ that reached Melbourne in first place, in 70 hrs 54 min. ’Black Magic’ (G-ACSP) eventually retired when a piston seized after the Mollinsons had been forced to use contaminated fuel. Cathcart & Waller (G-ACSR) came fourth and returned to England soon after, carrying newsreel film and completed the round trip in a record of thirteen and a half days. Upon its return, ’Grosvenor House’ (G-ACSS) was commandeered by the Air Ministry who flew it to Martlesham Heath for evaluation. It was repainted silver and re-designated ’K-5084’ before being written off during a heavy landing. It was sold for scrap, acquired by F Tasker and restored by Essex Aero who rebuilt it with Gypsy Six series II engines and used it for a number of further record breaking flights renamed ‘The Orphan’. It was renamed ‘The Burberry’ when Arthur Clouston and Victor Ricketts took it on an outstanding flight from Gravesend to Blenheim, New Zealand and back between 15th and 26th March 1938, covering 26,450 miles in 10 days, 21 hours 22 minutes. G-ACSR was renamed ’Reine Astrid’ before being sold to France as F-ANPY and where it also broke several point to point records. This led to a further aircraft being ordered (F-ANPZ). Both aircraft were last recorded in a hangar at Etampes in poor and part dismantled condition and their final fate is unknown. ’Black Magic’ (G-ACSP) went to Portugal as CS-AAJ ‘Salazar’ setting record flying times between Lisbon and London. It was found in a very sorry state in a barn in Portugal during 1979, but is now undergoing restoration at Derby Airfield, Egginton. The fifth DH88 was ‘Boomerang’ (G-ADEF) which was flown by Tom Campbell Black in an attempt on the record between London and Cape Town. It reached Cairo in a record 11 hrs 18 minutes but the attempt was abandoned after the aircraft developed oil troubles. During 1935, it crashed in the Sudan with the crew surviving by parachute. Comet G-ACSS was stored at Gravesend during WW2. De Havilland apprentices statically restored it for the 1951 Festival of Great Britain, where it was displayed hanging from the roof. It was given to the Shuttleworth Collection in 1965 and a restoration to flying was begun. Restoration was carried out first at RAE Farnborough and then at the British Aerospace works at Hatfield. This culminated in the first flight in forty-nine years on Sunday 17th May 1987. After closure of Hatfield in 1994 it returned to Old Warden where the runway was too short to allow safe operation. The runway was lengthened by 1999 but then, in 2002, the Comet suffered undercarriage failure when landing after its first test flight and research showed that as originally designed the legs were liable to failure under certain conditions. Subsequently modifications to the structure were approved and implemented and the aircraft flew again. After successful test flights on 1st August 2014 it’s now a regular performer at Shuttleworth air displays. Video and Audio content is Copyright © High Flight.