Plane #8 - de Havilland DH.88 Comet

From my Dad:

I will say however that I really know nothing about it except from appearances. I cannot even identify what or who made it. Since it is a relatively large plane for a two seater I am guessing it was built for racing - probably in the mid to late thirties.

The engines appear to be 4 cylinder inverted in line engines. From a process of elimination. That does not help much. They could be Menascos, or Gypsy Moths. The industry went through a period of 'in line' engines having less frontal drag of the airplane -- versus a radial. There are only two basic ways to dissipate the heat generated by internal combustion engines. It is either air, liquid, or air and liquid. Something must cool the liquid before it all boils away. The problem with in line cooling are the rear cylinders. They always tend to overheat.

This plane looks a little Englishy to me and I would guess it has Gypsy Moth engines, which were made in England. I might suggest you invite Slim Beegles and send him a pix of the plane. I think this is something he might enjoy.

From Dad's friend Slim:

The airplane is the de Havilland Comet. I think a one of a kind built solely for the London to Melbourne race which had world participants. I think the US entered a Douglas maybe a DC-2 because of the early date of the race. I think maybe Roscoe Turner was the US pilot.

The Comet won the race. Then too the G on the registration number is for England. The British used the Gypsy engines for years.

I have know idea about the location however that is a Cessna P-210 off the left wing of the Comet. That really doesn't say either.

This race came about in the early or mid 1930's. I hope the airplane is still around someplace and in a museum.

My notes:

Wikipedia refers to this plane as the de Havilland DH.88 Comet and contrasts it with the de Havilland Comet jetliner. The picture on the site is eerily similar to Dad's picture above:

The reason is of course that the "Grosvenor House" is as Slim said, the plane that participated in the race from England to Melbourne Australia. It sounds like there is a very authentic replica built in 1993 as well as the original which is housed in the Shuttleworth Collection in England.

One final note. The race in question - the MacRobertson Trophy Air Race of 1934 - included a female entrant from the United State: Jackie Cochran who went on to found the Women's Air Service Pilots of which my Mom was a member. Amazing!