The race was sponsored by Sir Macpherson Robertson and ran from RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk to Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. Wikipedia puts the distance at about 11,300 miles. It says the start was at dawn, 6:30, on 20 October 1934. This Day in Aviation agrees on the time and adds that the aircraft were sent off at 45-second intervals from the newly opened RAF station. Skytamer also gives Mildenhall as the start, so I am happy to call that confirmed.

The field

This Day in Aviation says more than seventy aircraft were entered. Wikipedia says the field was cut from over 60 to 20 by the start. Both agree that 20 aircraft actually started. The entry list included other DH.88 Comets, including Black Magic, flown by Jim Mollison and Amy Johnson, which Wikipedia says retired at Allahabad.

The winners

Scott and Campbell Black flew the DH.88 Comet G-ACSS, Grosvenor House. Wikipedia, This Day in Aviation and Skytamer all name them. On the time, the sources split slightly. Wikipedia's article on the Comet and Skytamer give 70 hours 54 minutes 18 seconds. Wikipedia's article on the race and This Day in Aviation give 71 hours. I would say "about 71 hours" and leave it there. Wikipedia's Comet article gives 23 October as the day they finished at Melbourne. I could not find that date in the other pages, so it rests on that one article.

Wikipedia adds a twist on the prizes. It says the total purse was £15,000, with £10,000 for the outright winner. It also says the Comet had in fact won the handicap, but the rules barred one crew from taking two prizes, so the handicap went to the KLM Douglas DC-2 Uiver, which Wikipedia lists at 90 hours 13 minutes. I have only that one source for the rule, so I attribute it.

How many finished?

This is where I could not settle it. This Day in Aviation says only nine competitors finished the race, with the last, a Dragon Rapide, arriving on 3 November. Wikipedia's race article lists the 20 entries but gives no official finisher total, and I came across another figure of 11 in a search summary that I could not trace to a page. So I will say nine, according to This Day in Aviation, and leave it as an open question.

Where Grosvenor House is now

Wikipedia says G-ACSS went to the Shuttleworth Collection in 1965 and was restored to flying condition by 1987. The Shuttleworth Collection's own page lists it as collection owned, says it was given to the Collection in 1965 and that it flew again in August 2014. The same page says that following an incident in 2026 a fundraising campaign has been launched to support a comprehensive programme of restoration and preservation work. Wikipedia says the aircraft is not currently airworthy and that Shuttleworth intends to restore it. I would not call it airworthy today. It is at the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden, Bedfordshire.

I have no radar footage that goes with this story, so it is told in photographs. Only one of the pictures I picked is from 1934: Sam Hood's photograph of the Comet in Martin Place, Sydney. The Commons date is November 1934. The other pictures are modern ones of G-ACSS at Old Warden.

Which race would you like to have seen?

Twenty aircraft left Suffolk at dawn and bet on engines, fuel and navigation across half the world. Which race from the past would you most like to have watched? I would like to know.

Sources

  • Wikipedia, "MacRobertson Air Race": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacRobertson_Air_Race
  • Wikipedia, "de Havilland DH.88 Comet": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DH.88_Comet
  • This Day in Aviation, "20 October 1934: MacRobertson International Air Race": https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/20-october-1934-macrobertson-international-air-race/
  • Skytamer, October entries: https://www.skytamer.com/October.html
  • The Shuttleworth Collection, "de Havilland DH88 Comet": https://www.shuttleworth.org/discover/collection/aircraft/de-havilland-dh88-comet
  • Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Sam Hood, State Library of NSW (public domain); kitmasterbloke (CC BY 2.0); Jimmy3d0 (public domain)