The Historic Flight Foundation near Seattle, WA, have just acquired G-AHXW, a De Havilland DH.98A Dragon Rapide, that was owned for some years in the 1950s and 1960s by Fairey Aviation and then Fairey Surveys. They would like to hear about what sort of work it was doing, or any really interesting projects it may have been part of.
The museum has sent a couple of photographs of when the aeroplane arrived there on 31st March 2017, which are shown below. A trawl through the internet also found a photograph of G-AHXW in Fairey Surveys livery at White Waltham in 1965 on the website Air Photographic International (https://www.airphotographicinternational.com), which has hundreds of great photographs of old aircraft for sale, all identified with type, registration, location and date. Chris Knott, the owner of the website, has very generously allowed us to publish the photograph here.
If you have any information you would like to share, please reply, below, or send an email to admin@faireysurveys.co.uk, and we’ll pass on your details to the museum, or contact them direct at: imperfectsense@gmail.com
I should have said that the Rapide was at RAF Biggin Hill for their open day/air show which in those days happened every year to commemorate the Battle of Britain. I think (not sure) that it was £1 each for a flight of about 15 minutes – perhaps less- and there was a long queue for flights!
I was a Tomboy girl and I wanted to be Biggles when I grew up!
My father and I took a short trip in the Rapide from Biggin Hill aerodrome in the 1950s. It was my first flight and my ears popped so I became an Art Teacher instead!