Thanks: Graeme Clardidge
We say goodbye to an old friend.
The DH Dragon Rapide ZK-SWR took off from the Bridge Pa airfield in Hastings last Saturday ( 12 th Jan) bound for Ardmore in the safe hands of Chris Hart the Pilot and part owner along with Steve Turner another part owner and his family In the coming weeks the Rapide will be stripped of it’s wings and made ready for the sea voyage back to Germany to it’s new owners.
A little bit about it’s background (Belgian Air Force De Havilland DH.89A Rapide C.1, D-7 (RAF NR777, c/n 6853) was struck off charge on 8 July 1955 and ending up stored away in a hangar at Deurne airport. Although this was known to the aeronautical world not all that many people had seen this aircraft before it was sold in 1994 to Ron Sough in the UK. In 1995 however a group of aviation enthusiast around Benno Tissi acquired the D-7 which was shipped from Southampton to New Zealand. Restoration started in Mandeville, NZ, with Croydon Aircraft Company, but it had to move from there and in 2001 the project was taken over by Southair of Taieri, Dunedin, NZ. Since then ZK-SWR, as the aircraft is registered now, has taken to the air and has moved to the Hawkes Bay Airport, Napier NZ.)
Source: Aerohub
Best regards,
Daniel
