By Bill Meixner, of Cleveland Ohio, as presented to the 10th Annual Symposium on Air Race History held by the Society of Air Racing Historians at the Airport Holiday Inn, Cleveland, on April 30 1994.

Early in 1930 the people of Melbourne, in the state of Victoria, realized their centennial was fast approaching. While they were recovering from a great depression they looked for an opportunity to promote their great city and attract commerce.

A committee was formed and an event was sought to accomplish this. The Lord Mayor, Harold Smith, suggested the idea of an air race that would link England with Australia. The idea was accepted and a sponsor was sought. Sir Macpherson Robertson, a 72-year-old millionaire candy manufacturer, was approached and he agreed to sponsor the race.

Robertson wrote a check for $75,000 with the provision the race would be named the MacRobertson after his company, and that it would be made as safe as possible. The Royal Aero Club of England was put in charge of the race.

To encourage more entries, the race was divided into a speed and a handicap division. Speed - first one to Melbourne won, while the handicap division allowed 16 days to finish with the lowest flying time based on a formula.

The route would be similar to that of Jim Mollison's record flight of 1931. The route stretched over 11,300 miles, over 19 countries and seven seas. Five compulsory stops were designated for both the speed and the handicap division. Between these five stops pilots could select their own route.

There would also be 22 other optional landing places known as 'checking points'. First leg, London to Baghdad (Iraq) 2350 miles; second, 2300 miles to Allahabad (jungles of NW India); third, 2210 miles to Singapore, ("the worst air path in the world"), fierce wandering tropical storms plus 600 miles over the Bay of Bengal (which had never been flown over before); fourth, 2084 miles to Darwin (over the shark-infested Timor sea); fifth, 1389 miles to Charleville (a desert town); then 787 miles to the finish line at Flemington racecourse at Melbourne.

The basic rules were: no limit to the size of aircraft or power, no limit to crew size, no pilot may join aircraft after it left England. Aircraft must carry three days' rations per crew member, floats, smoke signals and efficient instruments.

Take off date was set at dawn (6:30) October 20, 1934. As plans progressed another rule was added to insure safety - they now required a certificate of airworthiness by the country of registration that the aircraft conforms to the minimum airworthiness requirements of ICAN (the International Convention of Air Navigation).

While most of the airfields en route were quite primitive and undeveloped, the Royal Aero Club went to work and convinced most of the countries involved to improve their facilities, many installed radios, built control towers, enlarged their fields and installed lights for night landings. Arrangements were made with Shell Oil and Stanavo to provide ample supplies of aviation fuels and lubricants at all 27 checking points.

Both companies were very interested in the outcome of the race and opened offices in London to provide whatever assistance they could about the route.

The Aero Club made arrangements for overnight accommodations for those needing them, handbooks were printed with complete instructions for getting logbooks signed and customs procedures at each airfield.

Much controversy arose over the certificates of airworthiness issued in the US. The Department of Commerce issued a NC certificate for passenger planes and a NR certificate for long-distance race planes. The Royal Aero Club refused to accept the NR certificate which would have barred all but a few of the US entries. There were accusations from both sides of the Atlantic, and finally the Royal Aero Club allowed the US certificates based on some changes.

The event was turning out to be international in scope, with 63 potential starters representing 13 countries. The US led the field with 20 pilots entered and 27 machines.

England did not have an aircraft at that time which could be considered a contender, having been developing a lot of small fast aircraft for local races, some of them attempting new records to the Cape of Good Hope.

On 4 January, 1934, Geoffrey de Havilland announced his company would build a limited number of aircraft with a speed of no less than 200mph and a range of 3000 miles for the remarkable price of £5,000 if he received three firm orders by 28 February. Design and development costs were estimated to be over £50,000.

Three firm orders were placed and work began. Design thinking centred around two new Gypsy Six engines with controllable pitch propellers needed to lift the heavy load of fuel necessary, especially in the hot climate. Two pilots would be arranged in tandem for low drag and a thin wing with trailing edge flaps would keep landing speeds in safe limits.

Early drawings showed a wire-braced wing and fixed landing gear, but these gave way to a stressed skin wing and a fully retractable landing gear. In order to get the range necessary, a long-span wing of high lift:drag value with a thin airfoil and low incidence was essential.

No existing method of construction in either wood or metal existed. To solve the problem chief designer A.E. Hagg and a small design team built a half-scale wood wing with upper and lower skins of diagonally cross-laminated spruce to take the bending loads, and three light box spars acting as shear members.

The half-scale model was tested to destruction to prove its worth. Hamilton standard propellors were considered but, when de Havilland staff went to the States they were told all of the Hamilton standard controllable pitch propellors were designed for large radial engines and they would have to do much testing to design small props for small engines - and there wasn't time enough to do it.

So they went to France and ordered Ratier two-position props. These were ground adjustable - a small air pump inflated a bladder which held the prop in fine pitch; protruding through the spinner was a small shaft with a disk attached.

The idea was when the aircraft reached a certain air speed the disk would push the shaft inward into a valve, deflating the bladder and allowing centrifugal force to change the pitch to coarse.

The first Comet completed was G-ACSP, and its first flight was 8 September, followed by G-ACSR and G-ACSS. There was insufficient time to do all the testing planned.

Scott was able to complete five landings and Black two. Jim Mollison was having trouble landing their Comet, but Amy was able to grease it on in front of the entire crowd.

Maximum weight became a problem for many entries. Even the Comet Grosvenor House was a little overweight, but a lighter weight fuel was found and substituted. Fitzmaurice was doing well with his Bellanca till the question of weight came up - his certificate of airworthiness stated a gross weight of 8350 lb which complied with the ICAN requirements except for the length of landing run.

The stewards decided he would have to go with the 5458lb weight and he withdrew. Turner also had a weight problem, at weigh-in he was 600lb. over his certificate of airworthiness (this had been thoroughly checked in the States). The theory was the American gallon converted to the British imperial gallon weighted 7.5 lb per gal, and the Mildenhall fuel weighed 7.7 lb. per gal, plus the fact that it was a cold day when the ship was weighed which made the fuel denser and heavier.

As a result Turner had to seal off one of his tanks, which meant he could not reach Baghdad non-stop.

The RAF air base at Mildenhall was not without its problems; the base was not yet completed although it had several large hangars to house the racing machines and there was much last-minute work going on. There were little or no accommodations for the pilots and crews. The crowds of the curious virtually overran the base, and the police had trouble controlling them.

There was not even a windsock to show pilots wind direction and a bonfire had to be built the morning of the race start.

On race day 20 planes lined up in two rows and were flagged-off at 45-second intervals starting at 6.30am. In the first row were the speed entries, the second row contained the handicap starters. First off were the Mollisons, followed by Turner, and within 20 minutes all were on their way.

The three Comets climbed high over the weather and set a course for Baghdad, Turner and the Panderjaeger headed for Athens and the KLM DC-2 crew headed for its regular stop at Rome. The smaller craft headed for Marseilles or Rome, and Jackie Cochran went to Bucharest.

Jackie experienced several problems with the engine and even considered bailing out, but couldn't get her canopy open. She finally discovered the fuel control valves were mismarked and she was able to keep it running. Wes Smith set up for landing and lowered the flaps only to discover only one came down - he was finally able to retract the one and made a rather fast landing.

Once on the ground Jackie decided the flaps couldn't be trusted and the landing fields down the route were smaller than Bucharest, so she decided to withdraw and go shopping. The Mollisons in Black Magic were the first to land at Baghdad (their navigation had been excellent) and were off again bound for Karachi when Scott and Black landed, later followed by Panderjager, the DC-2 and Turner.

The clipped-wing Monocoupe Baby Ruth flown by Jack Wright and John Polando were off at 6:36 headed through nasty weather for Marseilles, but had to land in Lyon for fuel. They went on to Marseilles and then to Rome where they spent the night (Jack didn't want to fly at night).

Scott and Black took off bound direct for Allahabad. Early on the morning of the second day Baby Ruth took off for Athens. Sometime that morning the eight-year-old Fairey Fox bomber crashed in the mountains of Italy and both pilots were killed, the only fatalities of the race. The reason for the crash is unknown.

At about 10am that morning Jim and Amy landed at Karachi setting a new England to India record. They were told Scott and Black were closing on them and in less than an hour they were airborne again, but their troubles were beginning.

The landing gear wouldn't retract fully so they returned for repairs which took several hours. Airborne once again, after two hours they were back on the ground as their maps were unsuitable for night flying so they spent the night in Karachi.

About the time the Mollisons were returning for the second time, the KLM DC-2 landed and in less than 30 minutes was airborne again. Not long after, the Panderjager was in the process of landing, it was dark and they couldn't see that one gear didn't come down. Geysendorfer landed on one wheel, the aircraft was damaged, but the crew insisted they would rejoin the race.

Sometime after midnight, the third Comet of Cathcart-Jones and Waller landed at Karachi with a serious oil leak. Scott and Black raced for Allahabad. They were now in the lead and after a short stay on the ground took off for Singapore straight across the Bay of Bengal.

Turner was having trouble finding Allahabad as high winds and thunderstorms had forced him about 200 miles south of the city. Nichols repeatedly tried to make contact only to be told to follow the light beacon the DC-2 said was visible for 70 miles. But they were in the middle of a line of thunderstorms and couldn't distinguish the revolving beacon in the lightning. In the dark, he circled for 90 minutes while Nichols tried to contact the tower. Their fuel was very low when he finally made contact.

Turner asked for the airport lights be blinked, and he made his approach. Uncertain in which direction to land Turner landed downwind and the airport officials expected a crash - but Turner handled the ship with superb skill and touched down gently. Turner was now in third place behind Scott and Black and the KLM DC-2.

Scott and Black were crossing the Bay of Bengal when they ran into a raging storm, but made it to Singapore where they refuelled and left for Darwin. The KLM DC-2 stopped at Calcutta and went on to Rangoon. Cathcart-Jones landed at Karachi with a serious oil leak; while it was being repaired the Mollisons took off for Allahabad but had to land in Jubbolpore for fuel. As this was not an approved landing place Jim found there was no aviation fuel available.

He chose to have the local bus company fuel the craft with ordinary gasoline, and by the time they reached Allahabad a piston had seized on one engine rupturing an oil line, and with no hope of repairing the engine they withdrew.

Early in the morning of the third day Scott and Black landed at Singapore and were leading by 1,300 miles. Eight hours later, Parmentier landed and cut his refuelling time to less than 30 minutes in an attempt to catch the leader. Scott and Black were halfway across the Timor Sea when their port engine started acting up

Shortly after dark their oil pressure dropped to zero, and even throttled back the engine quit. They limped into Darwin where mechanics were able to restore enough power for take-off. Cathcart-Jones in the second Comet was crossing the Bay of Bengal and in fourth place.

Scott and Black nursed the sick Comet the 1000 miles to Charleville where mechanics spent two hours on the sick engine. They were able to get enough power for take-off and they flew "all out" for Melbourne. The KLM DC-2 was in and out of Darwin with no problems and Turner was almost 1000 miles behind them. Despite falling oil pressure he was able to bring the Boeing into Darwin where mechanics could find nothing wrong. At 3:33 in the afternoon of October 23 Scott and Campbell-Black dove the crippled Comet over the finish line and won the race in 70 hr. 54 minutes and 18 seconds.

Turner was on his way to Charleville. That night after clearing Charleville the DC-2 was caught in a severe electrical storm about 200 miles from Melbourne. Circling over some mountains the radio operator tried in vain to make contact with anyone. In the town of Albury it was close to midnight when local residents heard an aircraft circling overhead. Suspecting it was one of the air racers, the mayor called the engineer at the light plant and asked him to switch the town's street lights on and off in Morse code identifying the town as Albury.

The radio station then sent out an appeal to everyone listening to drive their car to the local race track and line up on each side of the track with their headlights on to guide the plane down to the track. Parmentier saw the lights and made the landing on the race track in a heavy downpour.

News of the missing KLM aircraft reached Holland and a large crowd gathered outside the KLM office, the president, Dr Plesman, told the crowd to go home but they replied, "We won't go home till 'Uiver' is home." They stood all night in the rain until they knew the plane was safe.

Parmentier decided it would be too dangerous to take off in the dark so he waited for dawn. Turner was having his own problems - earlier one engine began smoking and he put the Boeing down to find a ruptured oil line was dripping oil and the airflow was putting the oil on the hot exhaust pipe. The solution was to remove the cowling so the dripping oil would not reach the hot pipe. Turner cabled officials at Melbourne to request continuing without the cowl. The answer was he could continue without the cowl on, but he would have to carry it with him to Melbourne.

There being no way to fit the cowl inside Turner took off and let it smoke. With the DC-2 down, Turner now saw a possibility of catching the Dutch. The next morning Parmentier found the Douglas had sunk into the rain-softened ground. The citizens of Albury again came to their rescue by attaching ropes to the landing gears and with several hundred people pulled the Douglas free. They also laid a wooden plank runway over the racecourse. Concerned about getting airborne Parmentier off-loaded all the mail, two members of the crew and the three passengers.

On the second attempt he was airborne and the mail, crew and passengers were put on the next train out. Turner, who could have passed them, was forced down only 40 miles from the finish line to work on his engines again. The DC-2 crossed the finish line in second place and Turner followed two and a half hours later.

The next day Cathcart-Jones and Waller finished. During the next ten days five more planes finished the race - MacGregor and Walker in the Miles Hawk were fifth, the Airspeed Courier of Stodart and Stodart was sixth, Melrose in a Puss Moth was seventh. The Desoutter flown by Hansen and Jensen was eighth, followed by the de HAvilland Dragon of Hewitt and Kay of New Zealand.

The British and the Australians, including Sir Robertson, were well pleased with the British crew/aircraft win. Sir Macpherson Robertson said: "This is just the result I wanted - to show a transport plane could reach Australia in four days". But no one was as happy as the Dutch. The airmen and crew were decorated as Knights and the passengers were presented with gold medals.

That evening a party was held to honour the three crews, and Turner went over to have a word with the winners. "Mr Scott," he boomed, "I certainly do congratulate you. It was an honour to take the fumes from your exhaust."