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Sunday, August 8, 2010
The Trail of the Caribou August 8, 1934
August 8th, 1934: a de Havilland DH-84 Dragon Trail of the Caribou takes off from Wasaga Beach, Canada, to fly non-stop to Great Britain. RAF Capt. James Ayling and Leonard Reid, of the deHavilland Aircraft Company of Canada are at the command of the Dragon. The DH-84 has a cruising speed of 109 miles per hour. The flight took the crew 30 hours, 50 minutes to complete the journey, landing at Heston Field outside of London. The flight was 3,700 miles.
Reid and Ayling in front of the Trail of the Caribou
Sadly, the aircraft G-ACIM was written off in Great Britain, after Reid who was giving rides to afford to send the aircraft back to Britain by boat, clipped some trees at an airfield in Hamble, England. To add to the bad luck he happened to be flying a potential benefactor's wife at the time.
