Item #100378 A vintage photograph of the West Australian Airways De Havilland DH-66 Hercules biplane G-AUJO, taking off from Parafield Airport, Adelaide. West Australian Airways.
[West Australian Airways]

A vintage photograph of the West Australian Airways De Havilland DH-66 Hercules biplane G-AUJO, taking off from Parafield Airport, Adelaide

A gelatin silver photograph, recently matted ready for framing (visible image size 254 × 318 mm).

A few trifling marks to the surface of the print; in very good condition.

It is a wonderful image of the aircraft gathering height as it takes off, with a house in the near-background providing a sense of scale. The light over the hills in the distance completes the picture. Norman Brearley founded Western Australian Airways in 1921 (called West Australian Airways from 1926). In 1929, WAA 'won a five-year contract for mail flights between Perth and Adelaide ... which it commenced that year using the much larger DH-66 Hercules aircraft. Reflecting the more leisurely pace of air operations in those days, the flight included two lunch stops and an overnight stay at Forrest, on the Nullarbor. Four Hercules were purchased' (website of the Royal Australian Air Force Association, WA Division). These four were each 'capable of carrying 14 passengers and considerable cargo, at a speed of 160 kilometres per hour' ('Oz Aviation' website). G-AUJO, the first of them, was delivered on 1 June 1929. 'From January 1929, Australian aircraft began displaying the nationality and registration mark "VH". Aircraft previously registered G-A__ dropped the "G-A" prefix but retained the last three letters of their registration. Thus G-AUBA became VH-UBA. Because of the cost of re-painting aircraft, owners were given a period of twelve months in which to effect the change at the next major overhaul' (website of the Airways Museum & Civil Aviation Historical Society). Accordingly, this photograph dates from the second half of 1929. The aircraft itself was very rare, as only eleven were ever built.

Item #100378

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