VH-UFF
De Havilland DH 89 Dragon
Rapide (c/n 6270)
The gorgeous photo above of Holyman's Airways
'Memma' comes from the
Margaret Campbell
collection, via the archives of the Civil Aviation Historical
Society. Imported in 1935,.
this Rapide
passed to Australian
National
Airways and then to Airlines of Australia Ltd in 1938, retaining the
same name.
In July 1940 it was impressed by the RAAF as A33-3, then later released
back the
airlines
as VH-UFF with Guinea Airways and
later Airlines(WA) Ltd before being sold to aircraft
dealers Brown
& Dureau Ltd of
Melbourne in October 1948 for aerial photographic survey duties.
My
shot below was taken at Essendon
Airport in 1954.
It
was finally exported to New Caledonia
in 1956,
becoming F-OAVG for Transpac.
The humid jungle of that island took a terrible toll on
the old lady
and it was only operated for a
year, before being retired on 2 February 1957 at
Noumea-Magenta and
providing parts
for another Transpac D.H.89, F-OATC. At the foot of the
page are
a couple of pictures from the Geoff Goodall collection showing F-OATC
and the remains
of F-OAVG at Noumea in
1957.
.
