VH-UUF  (as G-ACJL)   Airspeed A.S.5A Courier                                     (c/n 10)

                               

                                   G-ACJL was the Airspeed Courier which took part in the 1934 MacRobertson London to
                                   Melbourne Air Race.    It was flown by S/L David Stodart with his cousin, Ken Stodart as
                                   co-pilot.  It came third in the handicap section.    It was owned, at the time, by Aircraft Ex-
                                   change & Mart , Ltd of Hanworth Air Park.  It then appears to have remained in Australia
                                   since it ran into a mishap at an air pageant at Leeton, NSW (100 km northeast of Wagga)
                                   on 18 August 1935 when it collided with the Avro Avian VH-UGA.     It was repaired by
                                   subsidiary company Aircraft Exchange & Mart of Mascot and I assume that it WAS, at
                                   some point in time, painted as VH-UUF, although I have been unable to glean a shot of
                                   it as such. The image above is via Airspeed Aircraft Co in 1948 whilst the photo below is
                                   from the National Museum of Singapore taken during the air race.   The Courier was ship-
                                   ped back to the U.K. in 1936 although details of its final fate are obscure..