Go Back

[De Havilland Airco DH.9A Aircraft]

1928. Vintage silver gelatin photograph, annotated in ink on mat below image, 22.5 x 36cm. Slight silvering and scuffing overall, minor chips to edges. Framed.

Annotation reads “DH.9A, winner – aerial derby, Mascot, 31.3.28. F/O [flying officer, Norman] Mulroney. Also [winner] aerial services race, Brisbane, 25.8.28. F/O S.J. Moir.” This aircraft was one of 30 gift DH.9A aircraft presented by the British government to the newly formed Australian RAAF [in 1921]. “As a World War I pilot, Lieutenant Norman Mulroney [1893–1988] served with No. 3 Squadron Australian Flying Corps in France. He witnessed the shooting down of the German fighter pilot Rittmeister Manfred von Richthofen [“Red Baron”] on 21 April 1918.”

After service in the infantry in France, Sydney James Moir (Aust., b.1896) joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1917 and was “awarded the Air Force Cross in 1920 and went on to become a flying officer with the Citizen Air Force in 1925. In 1928, he was one of the pilots of the monoplane ‘Spirit of Australia’ which attempted to fly from Australia to Britain and back again with Captain Frank Hurley and Pilot-Officer H.C. Owen until it crashed near Athens, Greece.” Ref: AWM; Wiki; NLA (NATMAP); Parramatta Centenary of WWI; National Archives of Aust. (Moir enlistment); NSW BDM.

.
Item #CL199-100

Price (AUD): $1,950.00  other currencies