G-ABJU de Havilland D.H.80A Puss Moth
(c/n 2156)
This shot, from the
Geoff Goodall collection was taken at Maylands Airport, Perth, WA in
February
1935. The Puss Moth was registered to
(the 19th) Lord Sempill, an aviation pioneer and also a
Scottish Representative Peer between
1935 and 1963 (when all Scottish peers gained an automatic
seat in the House of
Lords). He had flown
G-ABJU to Australia a month before the Melbourne
Centenary Air Race, arriving in
Melbourne on 28 September 1934.
After extensive touring in
Australia wherein he also visited
New Guinea, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide (and was critical of
the lack of
night flying facilities in the country and also the lack of
aeronautical maps), he arrived at
Perth on 4 Februray 1935. He
departed Maylands on 10 February 1935 for the return trip to the
U.K G-ABJU was
impressed into the RAF in May 1941 as ES918. It did not last long
in that guise,
being written off in a crash at
Dumphries in Auugust of that year.