There’s been the odd setback along the way, but the de Havilland Aircraft Museum’s Dragon Rapide is approaching the day when it will become a prized exhibit.
It’s one of the hottest days of this record-breaking summer, the sun blazing down on the parched Hertfordshire countryside, yet in a former farm shed one of Britain’s longer-running restoration projects continues to take shape. Undeterred by this manifestation of the elements, just as they are when the winters get cold and the building’s draughts become a weakness rather than a strength, members of the group working on the de Havilland Aircraft Museum’s DH89A Dragon Rapide are here for their regular Wednesday session, plugging one of the few major gaps in this outstanding collection.
Predicting the end-date of any such effort is, of course, a fool’s errand. So it has been with the Rapide. Previously intended as a return to airworthiness, the decision was taken earlier this year to make the twin a static exhibit. This means it will be seen through to completion at the DHAM’s Salisbury Hall site, without the need to move elsewhere. And it will represent the type there as a permanent museum-piece, rather than being remotely based.
Had things progressed as planned on the mach…
