by kmpres » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:30 pm
Hello one and all, and especially Nicolette Marlow,
I hope this thread isn't too old to continue where you left off.
I am the oldest grandson of Donald E. Harkness, the pilot of the Dornier Libelle II that crashed in Auckland back in 1929. I have been reading with much interest the notes discussed here and comparing them with what I know from his WW1 diaries and other writings (he was a wonderful writer). I am now engaged in writing his memoirs. We've learned much about the man we never knew, but little about the plane in which he died, unfortunately. I suspect that is because the event so traumatized his family that they have shunned airplanes ever since. However, his interest in airplanes only skipped one generation as I have had a keen interest in them since I was little.
Oddly enough, I began this project when I chanced upon a picture of the Marlow Libelle, the one now in the Deutches Museum, in of all places, a Japanese model airplane magazine (I live in Japan). Somehow, I recognized it immediately even though I 'd never seen it before. it was quite an emotional experience. I resolved then and there to see the plane for myself, and a few years later I did, in the Zeppelin Museum in Freidrichshafen, where it had been transferred for a zeppelin symposium that was held there. Not quite sure what the Libelle had to do with zeppelins except that it roughly parallels the same timeline as the Graf Zeppelin, which is a big display there. It's folding wings also made it easy to transport so that might have been part of the reasoning as well.
As we now know, the Fiji plane was one of two that had been acquired by Aerial Services of Auckland. It had stayed crated up in the Customs house waiting for its duty to be paid when the accident with its sister ship happened so it only had to wait for someone to pay the duty for it to be released. After the accident, Capt Man, a partner in the company and the only other man to have flown the crashed plane, accompanied it to Fiji where he sold it to Mr. Marlow.
I spoke at length with the curator of the Deutches Museum (or one of them) and he said that they had few details of the Fiji plane. For example, they were completely unaware that it had once been owned by DEH DSC and his company, Aerial Services of Auckland, believing that it had been shipped directly to Fiji instead. He didn't quite believe it until I showed the pictures we had of the first plane and some of the details that I had researched. He also kept asking me what the color scheme was as all they had were some black and white pictures (plus a few more from NZ that I gave him). Dornier had painted the plane all silver to match the few pictures they had of it. My pictures of the plane that crashed also show a distinctly dark trim around the squared corners of the fuselage and tail feathers. This trim is missing from the restored aircraft, if it ever had it. I'm wondering if you, Nicolette, might be able to shed some light on the original colors of the plane your grandfather owned?
The curator also admitted that the instruments were probably in the wrong locations as the original dashboard had been in poor shape when Dornier reacquired it for restoration. Without a picture to guide them they simply put the instruments in what appeared to be the most convenient places for them. Any pictures you can share of the Fiji plane, inside and out, would be most appreciated. I have some pictures of the restored aircraft, plus some walk-arounds, that I can share.
By the way, after the plane was rebuilt it was given to the grandson of Claude Dornier, the founder of the company, for his 65th birthday. It seems that distant grandchildren are now as interested in these planes as their original owners were.