Schlesinger Race

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Race program of the Schlesinger Race

The Schlesinger Race , also known as the Schlesinger African Air Race , Rand Race or Portsmouth – Johannesburg Race , took place in 1936 between Portsmouth , England , and South Africa . The occasion was the Johannesburg Empire Exhibition taking place this year .

prehistory

IW Schlesinger, sponsor and namesake of the race

The British patron I. W. Schlesinger put a prize of 10,000 pounds sterling from the winner of the race. Two different ratings, a speed rating and a handicap rating, were announced for the race . The prize money was divided in half. A simultaneous win of both ratings was not intended. The race was organized and carried out by the Royal Aero Club .

A total of 14 crews registered for the race, of which nine finally started. The favorite for the race was the British pilot Tom Campbell Black , who won the MacRobertson Air Race between London and Melbourne in 1934 on a De Havilland DH.88 Comet . Black prepared for the race with a Percival Mew Gull with the registration number G-EAKL. Ten days before take-off, however, he was seriously injured in an accident at Speke Airport when Flying Officer Peter Stanley Salter, Assistant Adjutant and Chief Flying Instructor of No. 611 Squadron, rammed his Hawker Hart Blacks machine on the tarmac.

The Percival Vega Gull originally reported by John E. Carberry is the aircraft that Beryl Markham used for its transatlantic flight on September 4, 1936 with the registration number VP-KCC . The machine was therefore no longer available in time for the race.

course

Route of the race
The winners Scott and Guthrie
The winning aircraft which Percival Vega Gull of Scott and Guthrie

The race started at 6:15 a.m. on September 29, 1936 at Portsmouth Airport . Findlay and Waller were the first to take off with their Airspeed Envoy at 06:30, followed by Halse on the Percival Mew Gull. The other starters followed at one-minute intervals, only the start of Smith's Miles Sparrow Hawk was delayed by 75 seconds due to technical problems. Alington and Booth were the first to retire. When landing near Regensburg , the retractable landing gear of her British Aircraft Eagle was damaged. Damage to the retractable landing gear was symptomatic of this type of aircraft. The second machine built by British Aircraft Manufacturing, a twin-engine Double Eagle, also had to give up the race due to chassis problems. The landing gear of this aircraft was damaged while taxiing in Cairo . Miller had already had to give up the race near Belgrade because of problems with the fuel supply for his Percival Mew Gull. This meant that by Cairo a third of all starters had already canceled due to technical problems.

Smith also had to give up the race in Khartoum due to technical problems, and his Sparrow Hawk had problems with the oil tank. This means that almost half of all aircraft that took off were canceled for technical reasons. Another four aircraft were damaged during emergency landings or take-offs in Africa and had to give up the race. Llewellyn and Hughesdon damaged their aircraft in an emergency landing near Lake Tanganyika, forced by the bad weather . Halse and Clouston lost their machines in crash landings in Rhodesia .

The winners C. W .A. Scott and Giles Guthrie reached Rand Airport in Germiston with their Percival Vega Gull G-AEKE after a flight time of 52 hours, 56 minutes and 48 seconds on October 1, 1936. At this point there was only one other aircraft in the race, the However, Airspeed Envoy with the crew Findlay and Waller had an accident a short time later. Scott had already set three records on the England-Australia route and had won the MacRobertson Air Race with Black two years earlier. The aircraft was made available to the two pilots by Guthrie's father, Sir Connop Guthrie. The winners were thus entitled to half of the prize money of £ 10,000. Since no other crew finished the race apart from Scott and Guthrie, Schlesinger suggested using the rest of the prize money to support the relatives of Findlay and Morgan, the radio operator on board the Envoy, who had died in the race.

Giles Guthrie won the King's Cup Race in the restored G-AEKL in 1937 .

Attendees

Attendees
Start number Mark owner pilot plane comment
1. ZS-AHM Len Oates Capt. AM Miller Percival Mew Gull Emergency landing 30 miles north of Belgrade due to lack of fuel
2. ZS-AHO Capt. SS jibe Capt. SS jibe Percival Mew Gull Crash landing near Bomboshawa , Northern Rhodesia
3. G-AELT Victor Smith Victor Smith Miles Sparrow Hawk Surrendered to Khartoum due to problems with the oil tank
4th G-AEIN Henry S. Home Flt. Lt. T. Rose BA4 Double Eagle Surrendered due to broken chassis while taxiing in Cairo
5. G-AEKD Lt. Misri Chand Lt. Misri Chand,
Lt. P. Randolph 		Percival Vega Gull not started
6th G-AEKE Sir Connop Guthrie CWA Scott,
Giles Guthrie 		Percival Vega Gull winner
7th G-AEAB DW Llewellyn DW Llewellyn,
CF Hughesdon 		Percival Vega Gull Crash landing due to bad weather north of Lake Tanganyika
8th. G-ADOD F / O AE Clouston,
FE Tasker 		AE Clouston Miles Hawk VI Crash landing 150 miles south of Salisbury , Rhodesia
9. G-AEMX De Havilland Aircraft Co. H. Buckingham DH92 Dolphin not started
10. G-ADID CGM Alington CGM Alington,
Lt. PH Booth, RN 		British Aircraft Eagle Crash landing with broken gear near Regensburg
11. G-AEDE Bateman Scott Flt.Lt. HRAEdwards,
Sqdn. Ldr. BS Thynne 		Miles Peregrine not started
12. UP-KEE John E. Carberry John E. Carberry Percival Vega Gull not started
13. G-AENA Max H. Findlay,
Kenneth Waller 		Max H. Findlay,
Kenneth Waller 		Airspeed Envoy Breakage killed on take-off at Abercorn , Northern Rhodesia, Findlay and Morgan
14th G-AEKL Air Publicity Ltd T. Campbell Black Percival Mew Gull not started

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