On 6th October 1938 the Maia flying boat took off from the River Tay with the Mercury seaplane on its shoulders, it flew 6,045 miles to South Africa creating the record for the longest seaplane flight.
After getting about six miles outside Dundee, between the city and Forfar, the planes separated and the Mercury headed towards Africa. It touched down on the River Orange, setting the then seaplane distance record.
Mercury and Maia were a composite aircraft, one aircraft fixed to the top of the other, very much like the 747/Space Shuttle combination which was used to move the shuttle around America.
In this case it was two seaplanes - both aircraft took off and the object of that exercise of carrying one piggyback was to reduce fuel consumption and therefore leave the maximum amount of fuel available to the smaller aircraft (the Mercury) which would separate from the large mothership below (the Maia).]
The flight was not straightforward. During the separation, one of the engine cowlings was torn away, reducing the efficiency of the aircraft and adding to its fuel consumption. Heavy weather and thunderstorms were a frequent part of their journey, but most problematic was the failure of the electric fuel pumps, requiring the fuel to be pumped from the floats by hand. At 12,000 feet, with oxygen in relatively short supply, both men became very tired and Ian Harvey began to hallucinate.
During the second night of the flight it became clear to the pilots that a shortage of fuel would prevent them from reaching Cape Town, their intended destination. However, they were well passed the world’s seaplane record and so, for safety reasons, they landed Alexander Bay on the Orange River, about 390 miles short of their target. After 42½ hours flight, they had covered a distance of 6,041 miles; the record still stands today.
The second pic is a street sign near Dundee Airport commemorating the event, it reads…..
“Mayo Avenue The street name at Dundee Airport commemorate the World Record for the longest uninterrupted flight by a seaplane. At noon on 6 October 1938 an Empire Flying boat called "Maia” took off from the River Tay carrying a smaller seaplane called “Mercury” on its back. This piggy-back method of launching long distance aircraft was called the “Mayo Composite” after Major Robert Mayo of Imperial Airways who devised the technique. The two planes separated over Dundee Law and Captain Donald C.T. Bennett (later to be founder of the Pathfinder bomber force) and his co-pilot Ian Harvey, proceeded to fly 6,045 miles in Mercury in 42 hours 26 minutes. The finishing point was the estuary of the Orange River at Alexander Bay in South Africa, as the aircraft had insufficient fuel to reach its intended destination of Capetown due to adverse weather on route. “
On the Tay Embankment close to the RRS Discovery there is a bronze plaque attached to the seawall.
