Videos | Wednesday 7 January 2009
The MacRobertson Trophy Air Race took place October, 1934 as part of the Melbourne Centenary celebrations. The idea of the race was devised by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, and a prize fund of $75,000 was put up by Sir Macpherson Robertson, a wealthy Australian confectionery manufacturer, on the conditions that the race be named after his MacRobertson confectionery company, and that it be organised to be as safe as possible.
The race was organised by the Royal Aero Club and would run from RAF Mildenhall in East Anglia to Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne. There were 5 compulsory stops at Baghdad, Allahabad, Singapore, Darwin and Charleville, Queensland, otherwise the competitors could choose their own routes. A further 22 optional stops were provided with stocks of fuel and oil by Shell and Stanavo. The Royal Aero Club put some effort into persuading the countries along the route to improve the facilities at the stopping points.
The basic rules were: no limit to the size of aircraft or power, no limit to crew size, no pilot to join aircraft after it left England. Aircraft must carry three days' rations per crew member, floats, smoke signals and efficient instruments. There were prizes for the outright fastest aircraft, and for the best performance on a handicap formula by any aircraft finishing within 16 days.
Take off date was set at dawn (6:30) October 20, 1934. The initial field of over 60 had by then been whittled down to 20, including the 3 purpose-built de Havilland DH.88 Comet racers, two of the new generation of American all-metal passenger transports, and a mixture of earlier racers, light transports and old bombers.
First off the line, watched by a crowd of 60,000, were Jim & Amy Mollison in the Comet Black Magic, and they were early leaders in the race until forced to retire at Allahabad with engine trouble. This left the scarlet Comet Grosvenor House flown by Flight Lt. Charles Scott and Captain Tom Campbell Black well ahead of the field. This racer went on to win in a time of less than 3 days, despite flying the last stage with one engine throttled back because of an oil-pressure indicator giving a faulty low reading.
Perhaps more significantly in the development of popular long-distance air travel, the second and third places were taken by passenger transports, with the KLM Douglas DC-2 Uiver gaining a narrow advantage over Roscoe Turner's Boeing 247-D, both completing the course less than a day behind the winner.
The most dramatic part of the race was when the Uiver, hopelessly lost after becoming caught in a thunderstorm, ended up over Albury NSW. The townsfolk responded magnificently - an engineer at the power station signalled "Albury" to the plane by turning the town lights on and off, and an announcer on radio station 2CO Corowa appealed for cars to line up on the racecourse to light up a runway for the plane. The plane landed, and next morning was pulled out of the mud by locals to fly on and win the handicap section of the race. In gratitude KLM made a large donation to Albury Hospital and Alf Waugh, the Mayor of Albury, was awarded a title in Dutch nobility.
Tags: Air, Australia, Campbel, Comet, DeHavilland, England, London, Macpherson, Melborne, Mildenhall, Race, Robertson, Scott, Sir,
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:} fantastic, thank you .
Wow C W A Scott is my Great uncle,, Ive seen a few photos of him before but never any live footage !! nice one for posting it, do you know if there is any more?
Bloody Inspiring...Real Heroes! Well done chaps.
Cochrine entry is first descibed as a Northrop then on takeoff as a Granville?---has the tailplane of a GeeBee but looks more like a Boeing? anyone have any data about this plane.
The golden age of aviation never to be seen again. Going to do the route on flight sim in the DC2 now!
dis is on FS game too
fantastic footage !
Thanks for this it was lovely to hear about my father Mr Turner again
'Mr Turner' was my Father - thankyou thankyou Bomberguy for some awesome footage of his first great adventure. We have photos, but no video. If anyone has any more footage I'd LOVE to see it. Cheers!
Check that out! Comet vs. what looks like a Model Z or QED! de Haviland vs Granville Brothers. Talk about aviation history on record!
What wonderful machines. And, isn't it interesting that all those chaps seemed to use three initials? Yours, B I G Tits
some really great clips, well done Bomberguy for making these available for all to see and remember a heroic aviation event.
Please visit my site dedicated to the life and adventures of Tom Campbell Black. Google his full name. I am sure you will enjoy it after watching the video of the Great Race. Again well done bomberguy! I have put a link to this page from Tom's site.
Great piece of flying history - when England was still a contender - thanks for posting this.
Fantastic piece of aviation history thanks for putting it up. I have researched the race and if you Google tom campbell black you will see info relating to Tom and the Great Race.
There must have been a big build-up for this contest as my mother told me that the Doctor who was preparing for my entry into the world kept nipping 10 miles across the Fens to Mildenhall to see the planes arriving. I was born on the 7th October. RAF Mildenhall is now a large USAF base. Great stuff BG
Fantastic! 1930's aircraft are a favourite of mine. As the man said. Keep them coming, please.
DH Comet G-ACSS Grosvenor House survives, it is in the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden in Bedfordshire, England. There is talk of it flying again.
Keep 'em coming, Bomberguy!
An interesting piece of aviation history, thanks for posting! Good to see the Olympic put in an appearance too.