MacRobertson Air Race
The MacRobertson air race ( Victorian Centenary Air Race ) took place from October 20 to November 5, 1934 from England ( Mildenhall near Cambridge ) to Australia ( Melbourne ). The occasion was the 100th anniversary of the Australian state of Victoria and its capital Melbourne. The namesake and sponsor of the race was Sir Macpherson Robertson (1859-1945), owner of Macrobertson's chocolate factory, who made an amount of US $ 75,000 available. The race ran over a base distance of 18,200 km. The Royal Aero Club ran the race. A total of 27 support points were set up to collect operating materials . These were provided by Shell . Some airfields had to be expanded for the race . There were also overnight accommodations at the bases.
Two groups were admitted. Once this was the group for the speed race, the winner of which was the first to arrive in Melbourne. In addition, there was a handicap group that had 16 days to cover the distance and the winner was the one with the lowest pure flight time based on a handicap calculation.
The aircraft were not subject to any restrictions, but the crew could no longer be exchanged outside of England . However, a certificate of airworthiness from the respective country of manufacture had to be available as proof that the machine met the minimum safety requirements of the International Convention of Air Navigation (ICAN). In addition, an iron ration for three days had to be on board for each crew member, as well as rescue and signaling equipment and adequate instrumentation.
route
In addition to the starting point and destination, the airfields of Baghdad , Allahabad , Singapore , Darwin and Charleville were planned as checkpoints . Other places for stopovers included Marseille , Rome , Athens , Bucharest , Aleppo , Bushire , Alor Star , Karachi , Hyderabad , Calcutta , Rangoon , Rambang ( Sumatra ), Batavia (today Jakarta), Bali , Kupang ( Timor ), Newcastle Waters Cloncurry and Narrowmine .
Attendees
Some special machines were created in England for this race, such as the De Havilland DH.88 Comet , three of which took part in the race, and the Airspeed AS 8 Viceroy. One of the favorites was the Pander S4 Panderjager with the flying breeds Geysendorffer, Asjes and Pronk. With Roscoe Turner's Boeing 247 Warner Bros. Comet and the Douglas DC-2 Uiver of the Dutch airline KLM , two passenger aircraft also took part in the race.
The best-known names in the field also included the couple Jim and Amy Mollison with the Comet Black Magic , who had set several flying records both solo and together. They were known as the "Flying Sweethearts" (flying lovers). However, Roelof Jan Domenie, passenger on the Uiver , mentions that the two were unpopular. This may have been due to the strong ambition of the two Britons; However, Domenie does not provide any further details.
There were only three women among the participants: Jacqueline Cochran , later known as the "fastest woman in the world", had to give up her Granville R-6H Q.ED after a crash landing near Bucharest . The British Amy Johnson-Mollison, who also had to give up on the way with her husband Jim Mollison, as well as the German Thea Rasche , who did not have her own plane due to lack of money and therefore flew as a passenger on the Uiver .
Initially 64 machines were registered, which were reduced to 20 machines by the start day, October 20, 1934 . Among them was the Irishman James F. Fitzmaurice, who had overloaded his Bellanca and was not prepared to reduce his take-off weight by carrying a smaller amount of fuel. So he was excluded just a few hours before the start of the race.
A detailed list of participants can be found at the final scoring .
Race course
First day of racing
Around 60,000 people watched the launch in RAF Mildenhall . The planes stood in two rows, and the originally scheduled take-off at 6:30 a.m. had to be postponed several times. The reason for this was not only the mass of spectators who were still bustling around on the airfield, but also a stowaway who snuck into the DC-2. The planes took off at intervals of 45 seconds on the signal from London Mayor Sir Alfred Bower.
The Black Magic was the first aircraft to take off . The Uiver started as the seventh machine. The Comets immediately set course for Baghdad, the Boeing 247 and the Dutch Panderjager flew to Athens, the crew of the DC-2 Uiver opted for Rome, Jackie Cochran's QED flew to Bucharest. The Baby Ruth headed for Marseille, but managed due to fuel problems just to Lyon and reached Rome in the evening. All other planes chose Marseille or Rome as their first stop.
Already on the first day there were the first failures: The QED did not get beyond Bucharest due to various technical problems, the Airspeed Viceroy , specially designed for the race, only made it to Athens. In addition, a group of six favorites emerged: They were the three Comets, the Dutch planes Panderjager and Uiver and the Boeing 247 from Roscoe Turner.
In Baghdad, Comet Black Magic was in the lead with a slight lead over Comet Grosvenor House . Panderjager and Uiver were in third and fourth place . They all started towards Allahabad at the end of the first day of racing.
Second day of racing
On the morning of October 21 , Baby Ruth started from Rome towards Athens, a long way behind the leading machines. Shortly afterwards, the most tragic incident in the race happened: HD Gilman and JK Baines had an accident with their Fairey Fox near Palazzo San Gervasio , Italy. It should remain the only deaths during the race. A second accident on the same day, in which the Lockheed Vega Puck overturned in Aleppo, went well for the pilots.
Meanwhile, the Black Magic set a new record for flights from England to India when it reached Karachi (now Pakistan). Shortly after the restart, however, the Mollisons noticed that their landing gear could not be retracted. So they were forced to return to Karachi.
The Grosvenor House and the Uiver took advantage of this and overtook the Black Magic in Karachi, while the "Panderjager" was damaged on landing and was only able to resume racing after lengthy repairs. The third Comet, the green G-ACSR, also had technical problems on landing in Karachi. You made an oil leak to create.
The Grosvenor House reached the first Allahabad and flew down quickly towards Singapore. The Uiver's stopover also went smoothly, and the Dutch then set course for Calcutta. Roscoe Turner moved up to third place with his Boeing 247 due to the incidents, but had problems approaching Allahabad due to bad weather, where they were considered missing for a while. The Black Magic reached Allahabad late after an unscheduled stopover in Jobbolpore (India) due to lack of fuel. Since there was no aviation fuel there, they switched to low-octane gasoline. After problems arose during the flight, the Mollisons in Allahabad discovered that the engine was irreparably damaged and gave up the race there. The Panderjager and the green Comet also reached Allahabad late. While the Comet's stay went smoothly this time, the Panderjager was destroyed on landing. At the end of the second day of racing , after problems with strong storms, the Grosvenor House safely reached the airport in Singapore and made its way to Darwin, Australia. The second-placed DC-2 was on its way from Calcutta to Rangoon. The Boeing 247 and the second Comet followed in third and fourth place.
Third day of racing
At the beginning of the third day of racing, the Grosvenor House reached Darwin with an oil leak. There the machine was makeshift repairs. A little later, in Charleville (Queensland), the Comet had to make another stopover in order to have further repairs carried out on the engine. Nevertheless, at the end of the third day of racing , the Grosvenor House was the first aircraft to reach Melbourne after 71 hours, 0 minutes and 23 seconds.
The Uiver reached Singapore 8 hours behind Grosvenor House , but still had the hope of reducing the gap with the short ground time of less than 30 minutes. Their lead on the Boeing 247 was also about 8 hours. Only 200 miles from Melbourne, the DC-2 flew into a severe thunderstorm and was forced to make an emergency landing. After circling for hours and searching for a suitable landing site (at this point it was nighttime in Australia) the residents of the small town of Albury heard the Uiver's engine . The population lit a field with their car headlights, and so the DC-2 landed on the improvised field. At that time, hundreds of people were in front of the KLM main building in the Netherlands, waiting for the news that the Uiver had landed safely. Even a request from KLM President Albert Plesman to go home did not prevent the masses from waiting for a sign of life for “their” DC-2 in the pouring rain. The captain of the DC-2, Koene Dirk Parmentier , decided not to continue flying until daylight.
Roscoe Turner could not take advantage of it, however. The Boeing 247 was also forced to make an emergency landing due to technical problems. Oil dripped onto a hot piece of metal in the cowling. Turner telegraphed permission to fly without the fairing and was given it, but on the condition that he had to ship the fairing on as ballast. However, the crew decided to continue flying with the smoking engine in the hope of overtaking the Dutch.
Fourth day of racing
The morning after, the Uiver was again dependent on the help of the residents of Albury. The rain drowned the DC-2's landing gear in the mud. Hundreds of people helped free the machine. A reasonably solid foundation was laid with wooden planks for the start. So that the machine could start safely, it was decided to leave every extra gram of weight in Albury. This included the mail, the freight, the luggage, parts of the interior, the passengers and even the on-board engineer Prins and the radio operator van Brugge. The "Uiver" took off safely in the direction of Melbourne and reached its destination 58 minutes later. With 90 hours and 13 minutes, the DC-2 was the second aircraft to reach Melbourne. The DC-2 was not only helped by the fact that it was the only one of the favorites group to reach the destination without any technical problems. The short ground times were also the trump card of the heavily loaded machine. The usual sentence "OK, gentlemen, back on board" was the signal for the passengers to get back on the plane after usually only 30 minutes. The pure flight time of the Uiver was 81 hours, 10 minutes and 36 seconds.
The last hope for Roscoe Turner of overtaking the Dutch was dashed when the smoking engines forced the Boeing to land again. Two hours and 42 minutes after the DC-2, the Boeing reached its destination.
The green Comet landed in Melbourne on the fifth day of racing, and five more machines reached their destination in the next 10 days. Two more aircraft reached Melbourne around a month after the start of the race, but were no longer rated.
Final scoring
| Official rating | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
De Havilland DH.88 Comet G-ACSS Grosvenor House |
CWA Scott, T. Campbell Black Great Britain |
Time 71h 0m |
|
|
Douglas DC-2 PH-AJU Uiver |
Koene Dirk Parmentier (captain), Jan J. Moll (co-pilot) Bouwe Prins (flight engineer), Cor van Brugge (radio operator) Roelof Jan Domenie, PMJ Gilissen and Thea Rasche (passengers) Netherlands |
Time 90h 13m Winner of the handicap race |
|
|
Boeing 247- D NR257Y Warner Bros. Comet |
Roscoe Turner (captain), Clyde Pangborn (co-pilot), ship owner Nichols (radio operator) USA |
Time 92h 55m |
|
| De Havilland DH.88 Comet G-ACSR |
O. Cathcart Jones, KF Waller Great Britain |
Time 108h 13m | |
|
Miles Hawk Major ZK-ADJ |
S / Ldr. M. McGregor, HC Walker New Zealand |
Time 7d. 14hr Fastest single engine machine |
|
|
Airspeed AS.5 Courier G-ACJL |
S / Ldr. D. Stodart, Sgt. Pilot K. Stodart Great Britain |
Time 9d 18h |
|
|
De Havilland DH.80 Puss Moth VH-UQO My Hildegarde |
CJ 'Jimmy' Melrose Australia |
Time 10d 16hr Second winner in the handicap race |
|
|
Desoutter Mk.II OY-DOD |
Lt. M. Hansen, D. Jensen Denmark |
Arrival October 31 | |
|
De Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide ZK-ACO |
JD Hewitt, CE Kay, F. Stewart New Zealand |
Arrival November 3rd | |
| Unrated | |||
|
Miles Falcon G-ACTM |
HL Brook, Miss E. Lay (passenger) Great Britain |
Arrival November 20th | |
|
Fairey IIIF G-AABY |
F / O CG Davies, Lt. Cdr. CN Hill UK |
Arrival November 24th | |
|
Fairey Fox I G-ACXO |
R. Parer, G. Hemsworth Australia |
Quit the race in Paris . | |
|
Lambert Monocoupe 145 NC501W Baby Ruth |
JH Wright, J. Polando Warner USA |
Gave up the race in Calcutta on |
|
| De Havilland DH.88 Comet G-ACSP Black Magic |
Jim Mollison & Amy Johnson-Mollison Great Britain |
Gave the race with engine problems in Allahabad on | |
|
Pander S4 PH-OST Panderjager |
GJ Geysendorffer, DL Asjes, P. Pronk Netherlands |
Airplane destroyed in a collision on the ground in Allahabad . |
|
|
British Aircraft Eagle G-ACVU |
F / Lt. G. Shaw Great Britain |
Gave the race in Bushire on | |
|
Lockheed Vega G-ABGK Puck |
J. Woods, DC Bennett Australia |
Abandoned after rollover on landing in Aleppo | |
|
Airspeed AS.8 Viceroy G-ACMU |
N. Stack, SL Turner UK |
Gave the race due to brake problems in Athens on |
|
|
Granville R-6H NX14307 QED |
Jackie Cochran , W. Smith Pratt USA |
Gave the race with problems at the landing flaps in Bucharest on |
|
| Fairey Fox I G-ACXX |
HD Gilman, JK Baines Great Britain |
Crash near Palazzo San Gervasio in Italy , both pilots died | |
The speed race was decided by the DH 88 Comet Grosvenor House with pilots Scott and Campbell Black in a time of 71 hours 0 minutes 18 seconds. The DC-2 would have taken second place in the speed race, but did without it because Parmentier had flown illegally after an emergency landing in the second half of the last stage with no useful weight and passengers and only with a co-pilot. Other sources, however, report that the crew of the Uiver had to forego second place in the speed race, as only one prize (either in the speed race or in the handicap race) could be claimed. Parmentier is said to have decided to win the handicap rating.
The Uiver was the winner of the handicap race, the second place in this classification went to the Australian DeHavilland Puss Moth My Hildegarde , who reached the finish line after 10 days and 16 hours.
The drivers Harold D. Gilman and James K. Baines from Great Britain paid for the race with their lives when they had a fatal accident with their Fairey Fox I in Italy .
The planes today
The Grosvenor House toured after the success for some time in Australia before flying back to England. It was exhibited in a museum for a while before it was made airworthy again. Today she is a welcome guest at air shows and classic car exhibitions.
The Black Magic was considered lost after 1937 until it appeared in a barn in Portugal in 1979. Today it is a restoration project.
The Douglas DC-2 and the Boeing 247 set a clear signal for civil aviation. With their successes, the age of all-metal aircraft had finally dawned. The Uiver was in Europe for a while before it was used again on the Amsterdam-Batavia route. She crashed on one of these flights in December 1934. A DC-2 originally belonging to the Royal Australian Air Force now bears the colors of the Uiver and is owned by the Aviodrome Museum in Lelystad, the Netherlands . It is the last airworthy DC-2 in the world.
The Boeing 247 hangs in the US National Air And Space Museum today. The QED is also on display in a museum, but in Mexico.
The Baby Ruth is similar to Black Magic , a dormant restoration project.
See also
History of Aviation in Australia