Designed specifically for the 1934 Victorian Centenary Air Race from Mildenhall to Melbourne, for which the prize money was donated by Sir Mac- Pherson Robertson, the de Havilland D.H.88 Comet attracted three orders before the February 1934 deadline which had been stipulated by the manufacturer for guaranteed delivery before the Race in October. Purchasers were Mr A. O. Edwards, managing director of the Grosvenor House Hotel, Bernard Rubin, and Jim and Amy Mollison. The Comet was of wooden construction throughout, the front section of the fuselage containing three large fuel tanks behind which were two tandem seats for the pilot and copilot. Two high compression de Havilland Gipsy Six R engines were installed, driving Ratier two-position propellers which were set to fine pitch before each flight. These went into coarse pitch automatically at 241km/h, when a sealing disc in the spinner opened to release the unit's internal pressure and thus activate the control mechanism. Other notable features included the provision of manually retractable landing gear and split trailing-edge flaps.

Hubert Broad flew the first Comet, that intended for the Mollisons, at Hatfield on 8 September 1934. Its Certificate of Airworthiness was issued on.9 October and certificates for the other two aircraft on 12 October, just eight days before the Race. Dawn on 20 October saw the departure of the first contestants, including the Mollisons' Black Magic, Owen Cathcart-Jones and Ken Waller's G-ACSR (owned by Rubin) and C. W. A. Scott and T. Campbell Black in Grosvenor House. Black Magic accomplished successfully the non-stop London-Baghdad leg but was forced to retire with engine trouble at Allahabad. Cathcart-Jones and Waller, after getting lost and being forced to land in Persia, struggled through to Melbourne to finish fourth in the speed section. They flew straight back, with mail and film, to set an out-and-return record of 131/2 days. Scott and Black were the speed section winners, covering the course in 70 hours 54 minutes; Grosvenor House is now preserved by the Shuttleworth Trust at Old Warden, Bedfordshire. Two more Comets were built, one as a mailplane for the French government and the other for Mr Cyril Nicholson, who sponsored two unsuccessful attempts on the London-Cape record. During the second attempt the crew baled out over Sudan, on 22 September 1935.

3-View

A three-view drawing (700 x 686)