ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 445
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| Date: | Friday 5 March 1937 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: | De Schelde Scheldemusch |
| Owner/operator: | De Schelde |
| Registration: | PH-AMA |
| MSN: | 51 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Location: | Gravesend Aerodrome, Gravesend, Kent -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Demo/Airshow/Display |
| Departure airport: | Gravesend Aerodrome, Gravesend, Kent |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Robert Galloway Doig and his company, Aircraft Constructions Ltd. of Sidcup, which built two flying Fleas - including the one that Flt. Lt. Ambrose Cowell lost his life (G-AEEW). After the crash of G-AEEW and the bad publicity that the Mignet H.M.14 "Flying Flea" attracted to itself, Doig looked for another project. At broadly the same time, in Holland, Theodor Slot, the Chief Designer of N V Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde, based in Vlissingen, was following closely the progress of the Flying Flea, which inspired him to design a single seater biplane, with (which was rare for its time) a tricycle undercarriage, of a size not dissimilar to the Flying Flea. The result of this was the allegedly unstallable De Schelde Scheldemusch - which attracted the interest of Robert Doig as a replacement for his planned production of the Flying Flea.
Doig was not slow in negotiating a licence for the manufacture of the Scheldemusch. It was his intention to sell these for £300 each - not appreciably more than the price at which commercially built Flying Fleas were sold. With a licence for production secured, he appointed W.S.Shackleton as the Sales Representative of Aircraft Constructions Ltd. and arranged for the demonstrator Scheldemusche to be brought to the UK to demonstrate it to the British public. Slot flew this aeroplane, PH-AMA, to Gravesend Aerodrome, where he put on a spirited display for the benefit of the newsreel cameras but in the course of so doing he managed to crash it. Whilst not seriously injuring himself, he managed to damage the demonstrator Scheldemusch beyond repair. The result was that Doig and Slot arranged for a second example, PH-AMG, to be flown to the UK in May 1937.
It enjoyed much greater longevity than its predecessor - including being tested by the RAF and surviving WWII (it was advertised "for sale" in Flight magazine issue of 1 August 1946 - before finally it 'disappeared off the radar' in the midlands in the early 1960s.
Returning to PH-AMA, its post crash history was as follows
17.12.1936 NV Koninklijke Maatschappij "De Schelde", Flushing
06.03.1937: The Certificate of Airworthiness was withdrawn
20.08.1937: The Certificate of Airworthiness issued again (presumably after repairs/rebuild)
10.05.1940 Destroyed during bombardment in Vlissingen.
12.06.1940 Registration PH-AMA canceled.
Sources:
1. http://www.hdekker.info/Nieuwe%20map/1937.htm
2. Flight magazine of 20 May 1937: https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1937/1937%20-%201337.html and https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1937/1937%20-%201340.html
3. http://www.hdekker.info/registermap/TWEEDE.htm
4. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=13748.0
5. https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/94324-de-schelde-scheldemusch
6. https://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/KleinBernhard/5433.htm
7. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_PH-.html
Media:
PH-AMA being test flown/displayed to the press at Gravesend, Kent 5 March 1937 (footage of crash is 0:38 in):
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 21-Jan-2008 10:00 | ASN archive | Added |
| 12-Mar-2008 11:57 | harro | Updated |
| 15-Feb-2019 11:00 | Cobar | Updated [Aircraft type, Cn, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Country, Phase, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
| 02-Apr-2020 17:12 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 02-Apr-2020 17:14 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Embed code] |
| 02-Apr-2020 17:15 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
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