Albatross Place

Albatross Place adjoins De Havilland Drive in Bell Block and was named in 2010, at the same time as neighbouring Hercules Place and Vampire Place. All three names were proposed by Bypass Developments Limited, the developer of the 24-lot industrial subdivision, in keeping with the theme of the immediate area which lies on the site of New Plymouth’s old airport.

Designed by aircraft engineer Arthur Hagg in 1937, the British DH.91 Albatross has been described as “the most beautiful four engine propeller-driven airliner ever built”. But the De Havilland Aircraft Company only made seven. Two operated as mail carriers, connecting the UK to France, Belgium and Switzerland, and the other five were passenger aircraft for Imperial Airways. Each Albatross had room for a crew of four (two pilots, a radioman and a flight steward) and up to 22 seated passengers. They were 21.8 metres long with a wingspan of 32 metres and a maximum speed of 362 kilometres per hour. Every plane in the fleet was christened with a name beginning with F: Falcon, Faraday, Fingal, Fiona, Fortuna, Franklin and Frobisher.

All seven Albatrosses were requisitioned for use by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Faraday and Franklin became transport shuttles flying service routes between Prestwick and Iceland but both were destroyed during landing accidents at Reykjavik in 1941 and 1942. The five passenger aircraft were used to connect Bristol to neutral Ireland and Portugal. Frobisher was destroyed during a German air raid in 1940 and Fingal was damaged beyond repair after hitting a farmhouse the same year. Fortuna crashed when its plywood wings gave out in 1943 near Shannon Airport in Ireland. Lack of spare parts resulted in Falcon and Fiona being scrapped in September 1943.

All that remains of the De Havilland Albatross is a little scale model owned by the British Airways museum in Middlesex, England.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.