Date:	Saturday 18 September 1926
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.53 Humming Bird
Owner/operator:	Flying Officer G.E.F.Boyes
Registration:	G-EBHZ
MSN:	99
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Lympne Airport, Lympne, Kent, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Demo/Airshow/Display
Departure airport:	Lympne Airport, Kent (LYM/EGMK)
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
De Havilland DH.53 Hummingbird G-EBHZ: First registered (C of R 1189) in early September 1923 to A.S. Butler, and named 'Sylvia II'. Sold on and re-registered 23 July 1925 to Flying Officer G.E.F. Boyes, RAF Northolt, Ruislip, Middlesex.

DH.53 Hummingbird G-EBHZ had its Douglas engine replaced by an A.B.C Scorpion engine, after De Havilland sold it to the Seven Aero Club, which was wrecked, due to oil starvation, whilst racing at Lympne Aerodrome on 1 August 1925. But that didn't mark its end. Jackson records that its registration lapsed after its last appearance at Lympne in September 1926. Which neatly takes us on to what happened to it there in that month.

BCAR 1919 to 1999 notes that G-EBHZ crashed at Lympne Aerodrome on 18 September 1926. However this would have been during the time that the 1926 Lympne Light Aeroplane Trials. Flight magazine records that whilst G-EBHZ was not participating in that year's trials, it was at Lympne on 18 September as a participant in that year's Grosvenor Trophy race. But whilst noting that two aeroplanes had to make forced landings, those identified as so doing didn't include G-EBHZ. Nowhere in the Flight article on events at Lympne is there any reference to G-EBHZ suffering a crash or any other incident there on 18 September. Had this occurred, it's reasonable to assume that Flight might have mentioned this

Various sources refer to G-EBHZ being reduced to parts in 1926. So was it involved in some sort of incident at Lympne on 18 September 1926? Maybe not a crash, in the sense we might know, but something which caused sufficient damage to the Humming Bird to render it beyond economic repair and make it more valuable as a spares source for the other flying Humming Birds? On cancelling its registration, the Air Ministry records have simply the words 'spares 1926?'

1. DeHavilland Aircraft since 1909 (A.J. Jackson)
2. N.A.C.A. Technical Memorandum No. 261
3. The Light Plane since 1909 - J. Underwood
4. The Light Plane Meeting at Lympne, Flight Magazine, Oct 18th 1923
5. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-EBHZ.pdf
6. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_G-E2.html
7. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=16010.0
8. http://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/15-aeroplanes/82-register-gb-g-eb
9. http://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/gallery/gallery/l/lympne-1923-g-ebhz-dh53-severn-aero-club-0016-0090-4351
10. http://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/gallery/gallery/l/lympne-1923-g-ebhz-dh53-0751-0030-4352
11. http://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/gallery/gallery/l/lympne-1923-g-ebhz-dh53-0751-0099-4353
12. http://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/gallery/g-e-aeroplanes/g-ebhz-3868

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
16-Mar-2020 19:31	Dr. John Smith	Added
11-Apr-2024 10:48	Nepa	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Operator]