Enter the Dragon

Bonhams, Goodwood, UK 9 September

COMPARED WITH THE MARKET for classic cars, that for classic aircraft is absolutely minuscule – which is why the value of most historic planes is so relatively low. For a case in point, look at this 1943 De Havilland DH84 Dragon, set to cross the block at Bonhams during this year’s Goodwood Revival sale.

One of just five airworthy examples of its type, it benefited from a no-expense-spared restoration around a decade ago, since when it has clocked up 450 flying hours as a regular attraction at airshows and fly-ins around Britain and Europe. Yet it is set to fetch a comparatively modest £200,000.

The DH84 Dragon was originally conceived as an aircraft that would be capable of flying passengers between England and Paris quickly and economically, with the first versions (priced at £2795) entering service with the forward-thinking Hillman Airways in 1933.

Capable of carrying between six and ten passengers, the planes proved ideal for the short hop from the Hillman Airways base in Romford, Essex, to Paris Le Bourget. (The service received some unwanted publicity when sisters Jane and Elizabeth Du Bois, daughters of the American Consul in Naples, carried out a suicide pact by jumping from a Dragon during the flight.)

This particular Dragon, however, was built at De Havilland’s plant at Bankstown airport, Sydney, in 1943 and served as a navigational trainer with the Royal Australian Air Force before being taken on by the Flying Doctor medical service and then consigned to the Marshall Airways collection at Bankstown.

It was acquired by the well-known aviation enthusiast and pilot Sir Torquil Norman during the early 2000s and restored to more efficient ‘Mk II’ specification (with framed cabin windows and faired-in undercarriage).

Bonhams hopes to have this glorious throwback to the early days of executive travel on show at Goodwood, weather permitting. bonhams.com