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INTRODUCTION
AGE FRIENDLY WEB-PAGE
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The following of what can only be described as an epilogue is the AirCentre Research Department's attempt to clarify how Australia's finest pioneer aviator Bert Hinkler "met his fate" on Prato Magna Alps near Arezzo in Italy in January 1933 and the reason why it occurred
It is designed to show how Bert Hinkler flying in his own Canadian registered English manufactured Puss Moth did not crash as a result of "bad weather" as bantered around in the media at the time but from the result of really poor aeronautical design of the DH-80 Puss Moth and the lack of adequate pre-production flight testing by the manufacturer
At the time aircraft design was changing from a dual-wing configuration (bi-plane) to monoplane - meaning a change from a two-wing configuration to a single-wing that allowed less aerodynamic drag and therefore greater speed and efficiency for a given engine horse-power
The time is 1930 - 12-years after World-War-One where aircraft had been used for the first time to attack the 'enemy' on both sides - and the recession that was about to hit the stock markets with unemployment on the rise
A major British aircraft manufacturer - De Havilland of Comet fame - was in the process of designing a series of "Moth" aircraft for personal and private use - one such machine in particular - the strut-braced folding-wing DH-80 monoplane turned out to be a real dud and not the success it was hoping to be - production ceased after 260 machines were manufactured
Of these production aircraft 9-units can be traced as having suffered an in-flight structural failure - generally associated with turbulence and not from 'bad weather' (that can be attributed to loss-of-control with inexperienced pilots who try to fly on instruments with the wing(s) departing the airframe due to excessive air-speed that's well over the design limits)
Competition amongst the British aircraft manufacturers was fierce at the time - all wanting to be the 'leader' of the pack and in their haste it appears that they forgot about safety when money is concerned - and nothing much has changed in this area of the big business environment over the past 80-years since
Government agencies have at least stabilised this area now with "Aviation Regulation" as part of the norm - the fledging Australian Government Regulators had actually withdrawn the Certificate of Airworthiness of DH-80's in September 1932 - 3-months before Bert's fatal flight - due to an in-flight structural failure of VH-UPM at Byron Bay and another DH-80 VH-UPC 40 kilometres east of Perth which occurred only six days after taking delivery
Now 80-years later using the internet "Google" for research a different story can be told that proves beyond a shadow of doubt that aircraft design at the time was based on a "trial-and-error" method wherein numerous persons lost their lives due to inadequate design standards and poor flight testing standards of the aircraft manufactures
Using a series of photographs taken from around 1930 to 1980 or thereabouts the history and subsequent fate of the DH-80 Puss Moth can be proven to have deceived a number of people including the best pilot in the world at the time when he was attempting another record 'solo' flight - no doubt encouraged by the manufacturer that his 3-seat aircraft was the ideal private tourer - by carrying out another 'faster' flight from England to Australia in 1933 - a record he had first set five years earlier in an Avro Avian biplane
Bert Hinkler did not crash as a result of 'bad weather' or any other issue that the public was lead to believe - it was from structural failure due to poor and inadequate design and flight testing
The left wing broke off
CONTINUE
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