High-speed airframe originally built for UK-Australia flight competition in 1934.
UK heritage aviation organisation The Shuttleworth Trust has declared that it plans to rebuild the De Havilland DH88 Comet badly damaged in a landing accident during an air show on 15 August.
The trust says the twin-engined racer will be restored “to airworthy conditions”. It is one of only five manufactured, and has been involved in several previous landing accidents.
Registered G-ACSS, it had been taking part in the Flying Proms air show at the Old Warden aerodrome about 65km north of London.
During an initial approach to the grass strip runway, the aircraft bounced heavily and the pilot aborted the landing.
As the aircraft touched down the second time, it also experienced shallow bouncing on its two forward main wheels, which worsened as the tail lowered and the tail-skid contacted the ground.
The DH88 appeared to settle and slow, before its tail lifted and the aircraft nosed over and came to rest inverted on its back, sustaining a fractured fuselage, and other substantial damage.
Its pilot was treated in hospital but subsequently released.
The high-speed aircraft, manufactured in 1934, was built specially to take part in that year’s MacRobertson Trophy Air Race from the UK to Australia.
Named Grosvenor House, after a hotel in the Mayfair district of London, the aircraft – one of three Comets to take part – won the event.
It was transferred back to the UK and used by the Royal Air Force, during which it “suffered several accidents”, according to The Shuttleworth Trust.
The aircraft was sold as scrap, but rebuilt by the company Essex Aero and participated in further races and events before being acquired by Shuttleworth in 1965 for restoration to flying condition.
According to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, it was damaged in a ground-loop incident which resulted in a left-hand main-gear collapse at Hatfield in July 1987.
It suffered another landing accident, at Old Warden in October 2002, while carrying out a test flight. The DH88 bounced four times and the right main-gear collapsed on the fifth touchdown, causing the aircraft to slide in an arc on its wing-tip and right engine. After modification, the aircraft flew again in 2014.
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