G-AUFB  Airco D.H.9C                               (c/n  853)

                              

                                   The images above and below of this old crate are from the John Oxley Library, State Library of
                                   Queensland collection.    The designation 9C was given to those ex-military machines which had
                                   been converted for civil use.  G-AUFB began life as H9337 in the RAF and was civilianized as
                                   G-EBKV in 1926 and exported in July of that year to Australia for D.G. Brims & Sons Ltd of
                                   Brisbane.   Interestingly, it was evidently employed on a flight from Brisbane to Lismore and
                                   then on to Mascot on the very same day it was first registered (24 September 1926) and flown
                                   by a "Mr Adair" with two passengers.    The 3rd image is a take-off of a photo which appeared
                                   in the Sydney Morning Herald of  25 September 1926, the caption of which indicated that it had
                                   a rough landing when it struck a sandy patch at Mascot aerodrome and damaged the  prop.  The
                                   article went on to say that the passengers felt little of this mishap.     Shortly after that, at the end
                                   of 1926, the aircraft went to Courier Aircrafts and was used, along with Avro 504K G-AUEW
                                   to deliver The Courier newspaper to rural areas.    It was named 'City of Brisbane' and at the
                                   foot of the page is a print of a Exxon Mobil advertisement (via Wally Civitico) indicating that
                                   G-AUFB had just been "added to the fleet of the Brisbane Aircraft Company and was being
                                   christened by the mayor of that city, Alderman W.A. Jolly".  However, so far as official records
                                   show, neither D.G. Brims &  Sons nor Courier Aircrafts Ltd ever officially traded as Brisbane
                                   Aircraft Company.   The ad went on to indicate that Plume Aviation Spirit and Gargoyle Mobil
                                   Oil were used in the machine.        In the event, and by whatever name, the newspaper delivery
                                   service was short-lived, and -UFB  was sold in September 1927 to Guinea Airways of Lae, NG.  
                                   It crashed into the Bulolo River, 8 miles north of Wau in March of  1928 and, as such, was never
                                   re-registered into the VH-U series.