G-AETM de
Havilland D.H.86B Express
(c/n 2353)
This D.H.86B, seen here in this de Havilland
image, was orignally delivered new (on 28 June 1937) to
Allied Airways
(Gandar Dower) Ltd to operate a route from Aberdeen to Stavanger,
Norway. Unfort-
unately there was not enough
traffic to sustain the operation and G-AETM was sold to Western Airways
in 1938 who named it "Silver Star". It was
operated on their Weston-Cardiff-Swansea-Birmingham
route. Finnish aviation historian Jouni Laukkanen
advises that in Februray 1940 it was donated to the
Government of
Finland by the British Consul, Mr. Henry McGrady Bell, and found
service as an aerial
ambulance,
registered OH-IPA (3). . Unfortunately, on 2 May 1940
it veered into a parked Brewster
239 fighter
(FinnAF serial BW-394) on take-off from Helsinki-Malmi airport and was
written-off,