Page 3 - April 2018

many air races during this time as a marketing
promotion designed to gain more sales. Some of its
previous test pilots air raced it. Pat Fillingham and his
wife Sonja, flying as navigator, won the British Air Racing
Championship in KDN.
The Chipmunk design won the contract and was selected
for service with the Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air
Force, Royal Belgian Air Force, Royal Egyptian Air Force,
Portuguese Air Force and Indian Civil Aviation Authority.
The Chipmunk’s successful military service spanned over
60 years.

The DHC1 Chipmunk design was followed with the DHC-
2 Beaver, DHC-3 Otter, DHC-4 Caribou, DHC-5 Buffalo,
DHC-6 Twin Otter, DHC-7 Dash7, DHC-8 Dash8. Today

De Havilland Canada Chipmunk DHC-1 G- the Bombardier aircraft line, including the Challenger, C-
AKDN — 2016 United Kingdom Tour series, Global and Q Series are still built at the same
location in Downsview . All of these world famous
By Dave Gillespie aircraft are direct descendants of G-AKDN, the oldest
airworthy Chipmunk.
ADVENTURES WITH G-AKDN - CHAPTER 2
… to be continued
The deHavilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd. was based at
Downsview Airport in downtown Toronto. They started
building aircraft there in 1928. Most of the designs they built
were under license from the British parent company
deHavilland Aircraft. These included some very famous aircraft
designs, the Tiger Moth, and Mosquito.
The Canadian company was tasked with designing a primary
trainer aircraft to replace the aging Tiger Moth biplane. The
new design had to be suitable for initial training for future jet
pilots. The DHC1 deHavilland Canada Design -1, named
Chipmunk, was the result. The first flight was May 22 1946,
flown by UK deHavilland test pilot Pat Fillingham. Three of the
very early prototypes, serial No. 1, 10 and 11, were sent to the KDN test flight photo with scale pole in
UK for evaluation by the Aeroplane and Armament front and spin test parachute on tailcone. 1947
Experimental Establishment, to determine if the design met Photo: deHavilland archives
the need of the Royal Air Force.

No. 11 was assigned the British registration of G-AKDN. KDN
was put thru extensive testing by many of the leading test
pilots of the time: John Derry (the first UK pilot to break the
sound barrier), “Mutt” Summers (the first pilot to fly the
Spitfire prototype), John “Cats Eyes” Cunningham (the high
scoring night fighter ace and Comet jet test pilot) and
deHavilland Company test pilots, Pat Fillingham and Jeffery
Pike. KDN with Pat and Sonja Fillingham, crossing the finish
line to win the Kings Cup 1953.
After the successful test flight program, deHavilland used KDN
Photo: Flight magazine
as a public relations aircraft to help advertise the type around
the world. Featured on many of the company publications,
KDN became the Chipmunk poster child. It was also flown in