Ten of aviation's most famous hitch-hikers. - By Lynn Keillor -
Air & Space magazine, July 2012 Hitchhiker: de Havilland D.H.53
Humming Bird Mothership: R33 airship Royal Air Force pilot Rollo
Haig was not a man to shy away from a challenge, which is likely
how he found himself a few thousand feet in the air, descending
a ladder from a dirigible into the cockpit of a small monoplane.
Once in the tiny cockpit of the de Havilland D.H.53 Humming
Bird, Haig pulled a lever that released the airplane from the
bottom of the R33 airship. As the Humming Bird went into a dive
over Pulham, England, Haig fired up the engine and leveled off.
The D.H.53 was originally built as an entrant to the 1923 Motor
Gliding Competition, sponsored by the Daily Mail newspaper. It
didn’t win, but its aerobatic potential caught the attention of
the RAF, which was looking for a way to protect its airships
from enemy fighters. The service modified two Humming Birds to
work in tandem with the R33. It was a perfect early October day.
Launchi