VH-AMN  de Havilland D.H.84 Dragon    (c/n  2059)

                           

                               In 1949 TAA acquired Qantas' Queensland operations, when that carrier wanted to divest itself
                               of domestic operations and concentrate on overseas routes.   Much of this work was in association
                               with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and the air ambulance normally used in those days was the
                               Dragon.   VH-AMN was one of these and is seen in TAA's hangar at Brisbane's Eagle Farm Air-
                               port in 1952.  VH-AMN was built by de Havilland Aircraft of Australia Pty Ltd at Mascot*
                               during the war and served with the RAAF as A34-70.    Imagine my surprise, when, one day,
                               I came across VH-AMN at Moorabbin,  now serving with the Airfarmers Division of Schutt
                               Aircraft and Sales Co. At first I thought they had turned this venerable old kite into a crop duster,
                               but I believe it was used as a company hack in support of crop duster pilots.

                               *    As an aside, it is interesting to note that, despite references to the contrary (and by many
                                     qualified historians), the Australian Dragons were not built at Bankstown but at Mascot,
                                     since the Bankstown plant was not completed until DHA were embarking on Mosquito
                                     production.  Noted historian John Hopton has wartime RAAF PR photographs showing
                                     the Dragon production hangar with the rear doors open and clearly showing the railway
                                     line up on the embankment that run alongside the old Mascot aerodrome boundary.