The de Havilland DH.88 Comet was produced by the de Havilland Aircraft Company to ensure that a competitive British entry would be available for the 1934 MacRobertson Air Race between England and Australia. The race was sponsored by wealth Australian confectionary manufacturer Macpherson Robertson to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the State of Victoria. Despite success in air races such as the Schneider Trophy, the British aircraft industry did not have a suitable contender and so Geoffrey de Havilland, determined that the race should have a British winner, took on the challenge.
Initial estimates placed the cost at around £50,000 per aeroplane and with little prospect of individual customers nor a chance of any form of production run, the de Havilland Board based its decision to finance the project purely for prestige and any resulting research benefits. The proposed design was offered for sale for £5,000 per aeroplane provided they were ordered before February 1934. Three aeroplanes were actually ordered for the race, the first aircraft being E-1 (G-ACSP) which first flew on 8th September 1934, just six weeks before the start of the race.
Designed by Arthur Hagg, the cantilever monoplane was powered by two 230hp Gipsy Six R engines, driving Ratier two-position propellers that changed pitch from fine to coarse automatically as airspeed increased. Two crew were seated in tandem behind three large fuel tanks which provided a maximum range of nearly 3,000 miles. The airframe featured a retractable undercarriage to enhance the aerodynamics and the overall lightweight construction resulted in the aeroplane being made almost entirely made of wood. The only metal being fuselage load-bearing components.
The three 'Race Planes' were the black and gold liveried ‘Black Magic’ (G-ACSP) flown by Jim and Amy Mollinson (nee Amy Johnson), the British Racing Green painted (G-ACSR), flown by Owen Cathcart-Jones and Ken Waller although it was paid for by racing driver Bernard Rubin, and the red and white ‘Grosvenor House’ (G-ACSS) flown by C W A Scott and Tom Campbell-Black which was named by its owner (Mr A O Edwards) after the London Hotel where he was Managing Director.
The race started on 20th October 1934 from RAF Mildenhall and attracted a large entry of racing, commercial and private aircraft. An indication of the superior range of the DH.88 Comet was that both 'Black Magic' (G-ACSP) and 'Grosvenor House' (G-ACSS) flew to Baghdad non-stop. Although the Mollinsons led in 'Black Magic' during the early stages, it was 'Grosvenor House' that reached Melbourne in first place, in just 70 hours 54 minutes. A KLM Douglas DC-2 airliner (PH-AJU) came second nearly 9¼ hours later. 'Black Magic' (G-ACSP) was forced to retire when a piston seized after the Mollinsons used contaminated fuel sourced from the local bus company in Jobbolpore. Cathcart-Jones and Waller (in G-ACSR) came fourth and returned to England, carrying newsreel film and completed the round trip in a record time of thirteen and a half days.
On its return from Australia 'Grosvenor House' (G-ACSS) was commandeered by the Air Ministry and flown it to Martlesham Heath for evaluation trials. It was repainted silver and re-designated (K5084) before being written-off during a heavy landing. It was sold for scrap before being acquired by Essex Aero who rebuilt it with Gipsy Six Series II engines and used it for a number of further record breaking flights. It had been renamed ‘The Burberry’ when Arthur Clouston and Victor Ricketts took it on an outstanding flight from Gravesend to Blenheim, New Zealand and back between 15th and 26th March 1938, covering the 26,450 miles in 10 days, 21 hours 22 minutes.
G-ACSR was renamed 'Reine Astrid' before being sold to France as F-ANPY and where it also broke several point-to-point records. This led to a further aircraft being ordered (F-ANPZ) although both aircraft were later destroyed in a hangar fire at Istres in 1940. 'Black Magic' (G-ACSP) went to Portugal as CS-AAJ ‘Salazar’ where it also subsequently set record flying times between Lisbon and London. After it was retired it was found in a very sorry state in a barn in Portugal during 1979. Thankfully, it is now undergoing restoration at Derby Airfield, Egginton.
The fifth and final DH.88 was ‘Boomerang’ (G-ADEF) which was actually flown by Tom Campbell Black in an attempt on the record between London and Cape Town. It managed to reach Cairo in a record 11 hrs 18 minutes but the attempt had to be abandoned after the aircraft developed oil troubles. During 1935, it sadly crashed in the Sudan with the crew only surviving by virtue of their parachutes.
The DH.88 Comet Racer was by any measure a significant aircraft in the history of both air racing and aviation development because it demonstrated what could be achieved once a clear goal is set. de Havilland Aircraft Company could have continued on their corporate path, developing civil and military aircraft in great numbers. Thankfully, Geoffrey de Havilland could not resist that competitive urge to create another unique design and produce an aircraft which would beat the world.