VH-UNH de Havilland D.H.71 Tiger Moth
(c/n 323)
The
first use of the name Tiger Moth was given to this diminutive monoplane
which had little
or no relationship to
the famous biplane of the same name which followed it.
The D.H.71
was built in 1926 to
investigate high-speed monoplane flight and to serve as a test bed for
developing the
D.H. Gipsy engine, a follow-on power plant to the Cirrus.
For the era it
employed an amazing degree of streamlining and was actually built
"around" (rather than for)
its test pilot, Hubert
Broad It was reputed to be very unstable to fly and
only two were built,
G-EBQU and
G-EBRV. The first and former was sent to Australia in 1930
and registered
VH-UNH to
Frank.K. Bardsley of Sydney on 20
January of that year. It crashed on
17 September 1930
whilst practicing for an air race
after suffering engine failure on take-off,
killing the
pilot, Dave
Smith, 20, registered owner of
the Ryan B-1 G-AUIZ and the youngest
commercial pilot
in Australia at that time.
The Sydney
Daily Pictorial for 16 September
describes the
accident and states (correctly) that the
D.H.71 had not yet gained an Australian
CofA when it
crashed. The above image is via Bruce Robinson and shows the
aircraft in front
of the
Australian National Airways hangar at Mascot, where apparently
Kingsford Smith evinced
some interest in
it. The grainy shot below was published in the
Sydney Morning Herald for
18 September 1930, the
day after the crash,
whilst that at the foot of the page came from a
contemporary Flying
magazine and shows
the aircraft just
after it had arrived at Point Cook
(Melbourne) with Major
Hereward de
Havilland in the cockpit.
