AHSA 2001 AH Vol 32 No 02.Pdf
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(mI ..f MM £ The Journal of the Aviation Historical Society of Australia Inc. A0033653P, ARBN 092-671-773 m Volume 32 Number 2 June 2001 iiligi fell iiii ■in 1 ■i ■ - m ■m m ■ ■ ■ m ■ m ■ m ■ I ■■ ■■ m m mmm ft' ill ■s ^4 1 ■I ■ ■■ ■ ■M ■ The Journal of the AVIATION HISTORICAL SOCIETY I of AUSTRALIA Inc. A00336533P, ARBN 092-671-773 Volume 32 - Number 2 - June 2001 EDITORIAL EDITORS, DESIGN & PRODUCTION First of all, let me thank all that have contributed since the Bill and Judith Baker iast issue on a great variety subjects. Upcoming issues will Address all correspondence to; benefit from this largesse. Don't stop, keep up the good The Editor, AHSA, work, it is very much appreciated by the Editorial team. P.O. Box 2007, South Melbourne 3205 Victoria, Australia. The Treasurer and I have gone over the Societies income 03 9583 4072 Phone & Fax and expenses and have drawn up a budget to cover the E.mail: [email protected] balance of this year. Like many Australians, the Society is a victim of the dreaded GST. We should have raised the subs, Subscription Rates; last year to accommodate this, but coupled with a 11% Australia A$40. increase in our printing costs, this means unfortunately, that Rest of World A$60. next years subscription will be increased. I write this to give Overseas payment to be in Australian you adequate notice of this intention, as quite a few of the currency by International Money Order or Societies' members, as I am, are on a fixed income. Bank Draft. Overseas personal cheques cannot be accepted. Editors wish list; Priority 1; First to Fly in Australia.( Still waiting) Articles for Publication; Any facet of Australia's aviation history, Malaya, GAF Are to be on an Australian theme. Nomad, Korea, Vietnam, anything that interests you and can The Editor reserves the right to edit any be printed. How about the history of Airbus in Australia? Or article accepted for publication. some photos out of your collection? Payment is not made for articles. Please include sufficient postage for the Cover: To introduce Ted Fletchers article on West return of originals if that is required. Australian DH-66's, this wonderful shot taken at Maylands. A - H and the Computer; Contributions for Photo courtesy of Aviation Heritage Museum, Bull Creek, the Journal are most welcome in any form, WA. but if you have a computer, exported on a 3V2" disc in ASSCII format (plain text), or Next Issue; Volume 32 Number 3 will be in your letter-box in WIN 6, would be just great! (Include hard the first week of September 2001. copy also). However Macintosh discs can be translated. All photographs submitted will be Contents; copied and the originals returned within 5 47 Pre-War WAN0.4DH-66 Edward Fletcher days of receipt. 53 TACA Roger MacDonald Disclaimer; 58 Trans Oceanic Airlines John Wilson 1. Whilst every effort is made to check the 72 Oh Dear 5 Wills-Cookson authenticity of the material and advertising 73 Australian Test Pilot Dennis Newton printed, the Publishers, Editors, and the 81 Silver City Survey Neville HAyes Aviation Historical Society of Australia and its 84 57 Years on Walter Venn Office Bearers cannot accept responsibility for any non-performance. 2. The views expressed in 'Aviation Heritage' are not necessarily those of the Meetings of the AHSA; AHSA or its Editors. Melbourne Branch: The fourth Wednesday in every month, 7:30 at the Airforce Association, 4 Cromwell Street, AVIATION HERITAGE South Yarra. Further information - Keith Meggs 9580 0140. ISSN 0815-4392 Print Post Approved PP 320418/00017 NSW Branch: The first Wednesday in every month 7:45 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Studio 1 at the Powerhouse Museum, enter from the e200.byth.Publishm; Macarthur Street end. Further information Warwick THE AVIATION HISTORICAL Bigsworth 02 9872 2323 SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC., Queensiand Branch: The iast Friday in every month 7:30 A0033653P ARBN 092-671-773 at the RQAC Archerfield. Meals available. Contact Richard P.O. BOX 2007, Hitchins, 07 3208 9810 SOUTH MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA AHSA Aviation Heritage PRE-WAR CIVIL AIRCRAFT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA By EDWARD FLETCHER VH-UJP, City of Adelaide, prepares for departure. Photo via M. Prime No. 4 De Havilland DH-66 Hercules In February 1927 the Commonwealth Government cargo on a State route, he saw this as an excellent initiated moves to link Perth and Adelaide by air. The opportunity to acquire real airliners that could lift more primary purpose of the service was to carry local mall to mail, passengers and freight than he had ever done the eastern states and enable mail from the United before and over an interstate route. So the immediate Kingdom to reach Adelaide and Melbourne two days question arose as to what type to name in his tender. quicker than by sea. Nothing came of the proposal at that In 1925 the de Havilland Aircraft Company were time but the matter was revived in 1928 and tenders were asked to submit a design for an airliner to be used by called for a subsidised service between the two cities. Imperial Airways Ltd on the Cairo to Basra route. The Among other requirements, the tenderers had to submit specification called for a large, multi-engined machine, the cruising speed and the type of aircraft they proposed robust enough to withstand the rigours of tropical service, to use on the route. Only two companies tendered. West and with sufficient reserve of power to operate in the hot Australian Airways (WAA) managed by Norman Brearley air of the region. Their design, which bore the Type and the Larkin Aerial Supply Co. There was little surprise Number DH66, was accepted and five aircraft were when it was announced that WAA had won the tender ordered. No type name was allocated until June 1926 which was valid for five years. when a student from Eton College won a competition in Unlike the subsidy for the North West service which the Meccano Magazine to find a suitable name with the was based on mileage flown, the basis of this subsidy was suggestion of Hercules. The prototype left Croydon to weight of mail carried . The successful tenderer would be take up station on 20 December 1926 and by March of the guaranteed £380 per trip if up to 600 lbs of mall were following year, all five aircraft were in service. They carried and would receive 12 shillings and eight pence for performed extremely well under the tropical conditions and every pound carried in excess of that weight. However, If soon built a reputation for reliability and stately, unhurried an average of 800 pounds or more were carried for four progress. A total of 11 aircraft were built of which four consecutive months, the subsidy would be Increased to came to Australia. £760 per trip. This clause was to play a vital part in the It was the largest aircraft that de Havilland had yet way that Norman Brearley decided his best course of produced and was a biplane with conventional wood and action and was to play an important part in his fabric-covered wings but as the traditional plywood and relationships with officialdom over the next few years . spruce, fabric-covered fuselage was considered With the north west service about to be extended to unsuitable for the tropics the frame was made instead Wyndham, WAA would soon be flying 6,000 route miles from steel tube, covered with fabric and with two large per week and Brearley’s dream of retaining his position as plywood boxes suspended inside it forming a one of the major operators in the Southern Hemisphere commodious cabin and a cargo hold. While the two pilots was close to being realised. occupied an open cockpit in the nose, the radio operator If Brearley had decided to treat the whole exercise as was accommodated in the cabin with the seven a purely mail carrying service, he could have chosen the passengers and up to 465 cu. ft. of mail. Power was DH 50A or the DH 61 and that choice would have been supplied by three 420 hp Bristol Jupiter VI direct-drive acceptable to the Department. However, he had his goal radials, one in the nose and one in each lower wing, giving set much higher and after working for eight years with sufficient power for the aircraft to fly and slowly climb on aircraft that could only carry two to four people and limited two engines while one-engine performance would enable 47 AHSA Aviation Heritage a 30 mile controlled descent to the ground. The large size United Kingdom. Mail boats from the UK arrived in of the aircraft was emphasised by the massive three-fin Fremantle each week early on Tuesday morning. The mail biplane tail. for the eastern states was to be rushed to Maylands and placed on a waiting DH66 which would fly to Forrest that day, spending the night there, and flying on to Parafield on Wednesday in a second DH66 which had been waiting at Forrest. Arrival time in South Australia was to be early afternoon, in time for the cargo to be placed on the Adelaide to Melbourne express which departed at 4.30 pm. The mail could then be delivered in Melbourne on Thursday. Return mail to Perth would travel from Melbourne to Adelaide by train on Saturday evening to be loaded on the DH66 at Parafield on Sunday morning. Forrest was reached that day and Maylands on the Monday afternoon, just in time to catch the mail boat for Europe which departed late in the Mechanic George Gurr alongside the Bristol Jupiter VI direct drive radial as used in the afternoon.