Viking1066
Brigadier General
Marina Raskova, Soviet pilot the net
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Also a Bellanca 28-70 in the background? 2 of my favorate high speed wooden wonders.The de Havilland DH.88 Comet 1934 MacRobertson Air Race from London to Melbourne the net
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Nope. That's the Gee Bee QED. Just as cool, though!Also a Bellanca 28-70 in the background? 2 of my favorate high speed wooden wonders.
The de Havilland DH.88 Comet 1934 MacRobertson Air Race from London to Melbourne the net
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There were actually three dH-88 Comets built for the race and the two shown are Black Magic and the Irish one which had no name and was painted green.
In the 1980s the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) contracted my company to build a full size fully powered but not flying replica which was repainted as necessary to represent the winner, Grosvener House, which is still alive and flying, and Black Magic. The mini series was called Half a world away.
Here are a few photos of the aircraft. After the filming was completed it was sold to a museum in the UK.
We could have built a fully airworthy replica for less money but the taxation laws required that from the day the film project was started until the completed film/series was on public display must be not more than one calendar year. Working 14 hour days seven days a week plays hell with the overtime penalty rates.
We built this replica in just 9 weeks using engines and props from a dH Heron and main gears from an Avro Anson.
All photographs are copyright Frank Mangano.
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Repainting from GH to BM and vice versa was done on weekends. Repainting was done five times during the production.
Every aircraft in the hangar had to be covered with cover sheets in during painting for obvious reasons. Equally obviously all aircraft that were mobile were pushed outside while painting. We used Courtaulds aircraft paints because that was what Paintcare used on a daily basis. The floodlights were needed because much of the painting was done at night and had to be finished by midday Sunday so that the paint cured before loading on the trailer in the dark on Monday morning for transport to the next filming location up to 250 km away.
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First engine start - idle only to make sure they worked..
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The winner of the race was the Comet Grosvenor House with the KLM DC-2 (played here by a DC-3) coming second only because it became bogged near Albury and was delayed. From Schipol to Jakarta the DC-2 followed the normal KLM route with paying passengers and also had paying passengers from Jakarta to Melbourne.
View attachment 895059A high speed run at Laverton. For obvious reasons we weighed the aircraft and set the centre of gravity in the right area just in case any air slipped in between the wheels.
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The two actors who played Scott and Black are in the middle. I cannot remember their names but they were great people and insisted on several shots of them with crew members with this being my favourite.
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View attachment 895055The actors who played Jim Mollison and Amy Johnson. ??? and Caroline Goodhall. More great people.
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First trial of the whole thing almost ready to move. It took less than two hours to load and unload the aircraft off the specially made trailer when finished. The fuselage was lifted by a built in hydraulic ram then rotated, leading edges removed and engines rotated, tailplanes and elevators removed and stowed in a box on the front of the trailer.
Colonel Oveta Hobby, Commanding Officer, WACS the net
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My first FROG kit.There were actually three dH-88 Comets built for the race and the two shown are Black Magic and the Irish one which had no name and was painted green.
In the 1980s the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) contracted my company to build a full size fully powered but not flying replica which was repainted as necessary to represent the winner, Grosvener House, which is still alive and flying, and Black Magic. The mini series was called Half a world away.
Here are a few photos of the aircraft. After the filming was completed it was sold to a museum in the UK.
We could have built a fully airworthy replica for less money but the taxation laws required that from the day the film project was started until the completed film/series was on public display must be not more than one calendar year. Working 14 hour days seven days a week plays hell with the overtime penalty rates.
We built this replica in just 9 weeks using engines and props from a dH Heron and main gears from an Avro Anson.
All photographs are copyright Frank Mangano.
View attachment 895067
View attachment 895068
Repainting from GH to BM and vice versa was done on weekends. Repainting was done five times during the production.
Every aircraft in the hangar had to be covered with cover sheets in during painting for obvious reasons. Equally obviously all aircraft that were mobile were pushed outside while painting. We used Courtaulds aircraft paints because that was what Paintcare used on a daily basis. The floodlights were needed because much of the painting was done at night and had to be finished by midday Sunday so that the paint cured before loading on the trailer in the dark on Monday morning for transport to the next filming location up to 250 km away.
View attachment 895065
View attachment 895066
View attachment 895069
First engine start - idle only to make sure they worked..
View attachment 895057
The winner of the race was the Comet Grosvenor House with the KLM DC-2 (played here by a DC-3) coming second only because it became bogged near Albury and was delayed. From Schipol to Jakarta the DC-2 followed the normal KLM route with paying passengers and also had paying passengers from Jakarta to Melbourne.
View attachment 895059A high speed run at Laverton. For obvious reasons we weighed the aircraft and set the centre of gravity in the right area just in case any air slipped in between the wheels.
View attachment 895063
View attachment 895060
View attachment 895064
View attachment 895056
The two actors who played Scott and Black are in the middle. I cannot remember their names but they were great people and insisted on several shots of them with crew members with this being my favourite.
View attachment 895050
View attachment 895051
View attachment 895052
View attachment 895053
View attachment 895054
View attachment 895055The actors who played Jim Mollison and Amy Johnson. ??? and Caroline Goodhall. More great people.
View attachment 895062
First trial of the whole thing almost ready to move. It took less than two hours to load and unload the aircraft off the specially made trailer when finished. The fuselage was lifted by a built in hydraulic ram then rotated, leading edges removed and engines rotated, tailplanes and elevators removed and stowed in a box on the front of the trailer.