de Havilland Dragon Rapide

The Prince and the Dragon

The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide was a British passenger airliner of the 1930’s. Designed by the de Havilland Company in late 1933, it became the most successful British built commercial passenger aircraft of that decade. The prototype flew in April 1934 and over two hundred had been built for owners before the outbreak of World War II. At the start of the war, many Rapides were requisitioned by the British armed forces and served as the de Havilland Dominie. They were used for passenger duties and radio navigation training. Total production rose to 734 with many survivors entering commercial service after the war.

This particular Dragon Rapide was restored in 2010 in the markings of aircraft G-ADDD as used by HRH King Edward VIII. The aircraft originally was manufactured by the de Havilland Company in 1944 and registered as G-AKPA. It was used by the British government during the Second World War (RAF Serial HG724) and sold as a group of dilapidated parts in 1946 to Charles Callendi and his brother-in-law, Bill Lyle, who were trying to start their own airline company.

The aircraft was completely rebuilt and professional “dope girls” (as they were known in those days) did the fabric sewing and doping during their spare weekends off. In the summer of 1948, the company established an office in Croydon, England, under the name of Newman Airways to offer flights from Croydon to the Channel Islands. When they failed to obtain a newspaper-hauling contract that next year, it was decided to soon close Newman Airways. The aircraft continued doing some charter flights until it was sold in 1951 to the Midland Metal Spinning Ltd. in Wolverhampton. Thereafter, the plane was sold to a firm in Ireland, then France, and finally to the United States in 1972.

George V became King of England in 1910 after the death of his father, King Edward VII. He had four sons of which Edward and Albert were first in successive line for the throne. Edward the oldest became the Prince of Wales and heir apparent to become King upon the eventual passing away of his father.

In the First World War, Prince Edward served near the front lines. He undertook his first military flight in 1918 and later gained his pilot’s license. Prince Edward, the young and handsome Prince of Wales was known as the flamboyant playboy that had many affairs with the ladies of the Royal Court. In 1931, he first met Wallis Simpson, a Philadelphia socialite married to a shipping executive of English and American descent. A few years later in 1934 she separated from her American husband and became his mistress.

In 1935, Prince Edward ordered the purchase of a de Havilland DH-89 Dragon Rapide, specially built for himself and painted in the bright Red and Blue colors of the Royal Guards. It was used for official trips and travel to the numerous royal family homes .The aircraft was out fitted with six comfortable chairs with the Prince of Wales feathers crest embossed on the back of each red leather seat, and was equipped with Marconi radio wireless equipment. It was occasionally used for official trips and travel to the numerous family homes.

On the night of January 20, 1936, King George V passed away and Prince Edward, former Prince of Wales, was immediately installed as King Edward VIII of the Royal Empire. King Edward became the first English monarch to fly in an aircraft when he traveled from Sandringham to London for his Accession Council The hidden romance between King Edward and Wallis Simpson continued, but was not made public, because of her position as a divorcée. They traveled to the quiet family homes of the Royal family and most likely even used the Royal Dragon Rapide for such getaway jaunts. However, marriage was impossible for the new King of England and his beautiful young American divorcee.

On December 11, 1936, King Edward shocked the world with the announcement of his intention to abdicate the throne and give up his crown in order to “marry the woman I love.” His brother Albert, then already Duke of York, became King George VI, the new King of England. They moved into Buckingham Palace with their two daughters Elizabeth and Anne. It continued this way through World War Two, until 1952 when King George VI passed away and Princess Elizabeth rose to the position as Queen Elizabeth II, and Royal leader of all of England and the Commonwealth. She had married Prince Philip in 1947 and had a son, Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, and planned successor to the throne. He of course married Princess Diana, who eventually divorced him, but died in a tragic automobile accident in an underpass in Paris.

King Edward VIII became the Duke of Windsor after his abdication and during World War 2; he governed the Bahamas islands with his wife Wallis, Duchess of Windsor. He passed away in Paris, France, in 1972 at the age of 77 and his wife followed him in death fourteen years later.

Our Dragon Rapide is painted in the royal colors of the Kings Guards. The registration of the plane is G-ADDD, as the King favored double letters like these. Inside the aircraft, it is plush and eloquently designed, fit for a king. On the back of the seats is the feathered bloom symbol for the crest from the Prince of Wales.

This recreation of the Royal Dragon Rapide first owned and flown by the British Royal family in 1937 is dedicated to the union of the two countries with the marriage of the former King of England to a commoner from Philadelphia. Just imagine what it must have been like during this era of English history, all before the Second World War.

The Rapide underwent final testing in Auckland, New Zeeland, where it was rebuilt, restored and flown for the first time since 1994. It had its first public outing and display at the Wanaka Airshow on Easter weekend on the South Island of New Zealand. Thereafter, it was disassembled, packed in a container and shipped to the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia where it was flown and displayed at the Warbirds Over the Beach Airshow in May of 2010.

Aircraft Photos