Short Finals

Well Done Stanley

I enjoyed reading Stanley Brogden’s history of Ansett in the February editions of Aircraft and Panorama, the Ansett in-flight magazine. I will always have a great regard for Stanley as it was he, ahd a small band of others, that personally buoyed up our morale in those somewhat tenuous early days of this magazine. Stanley himself is now in his early seventies and lays claim to a rather unique feat in that his first-ever plane flight was in, of all things, a B-29 bomber. It was during the latter days of the War and as a senior PR officer with the RAAF he had the task of escorting an American Superfortress around Australia on a goodwill mission. “They were the most tired men I had ever seen”, commented Stanley and some four decades later time has obviously not wearied Stanley as he still turns out excellent copy. Well done Stanley.

Sayonara Wamira!

During late January I had the pleasure of seeing the prototype A 1OB in the flesh for the first time. Beauty of course is a purely personal thing but I must say in all honesty that I never found the appearance of the Wamira to be anything 16 rave about. Compared to a Tucano, or the PC-9 it looked like a brick wings. Indeed the prototype gave me the overwhelming impression of an extremely large aircraft that had suffered greatly as a result of constantly changing aspects of its design gestation.

One such example is that beneath the cockpit floor, there is a vast area that appears to be around two feet deep. ihis was originally required as a result of the RAAF’s AFSR. 5044 specifically stating that the aircraft cockpit must be able to withstand a crash landing via a mass of deformable structure beneath the crew compartment. The next RAAF team then decided that this was unnecessary as ejection would now be fitted, effectively upping this great “stomach” of the aircraft’s unnecessary line first place even though it was too late to redesign the fuselage! Unfortunately, that was representative of much of the life of Wamira which ultimately saw the client totally change his mind on what was originally required and buy an off-the-shelf imported aircraft anyway.

The demise of Wamira doesn’t entirely lack humour though as somebody at GAF had made a large dagger and had strategically placed it into the spine of the Wamira engineering mock-up complete with dripping blood-red paint!

As we closed for press it was still uncertain as to the fate of the actual A1OB prototype though HdH are hoping to acquire it for probable placement in a museum as being representative of the last indigenous aircraft ever to be built Down Under.

Romance in the Air!

Every now and then you come across a story that really makes you remember the higher things in life.

It seems this gent wanted to propose to his lady but wanted to do it in such a way as it would be remembered for more than just a date on a calendar. His plan was to utter the magic words while orbiting over Sydney city on Christmas Eve. Anybody who has tried to flight plan over this airspace on what is the second busiest night of the year would appreciate that the answer is virtually a flat “no”. Not to be discouraged our gent discreetly informed Bankstown flight planning of his special mission and with the assistance of the Department proceeded to plan his flight with full tanks and the prospect of instant vectors to parts unknown.

When finally the happy couple arrived over the Harbour Bridge our friend requested approval for a number of orbits. By this stage most of ATC was up to speed on what was occurring and an instant and somewhat enthusiastic approval was immediately given with the proviso that additional time on station could be had if required! The mission was accomplished, the lady said yes, and ATC were quick to query the result with a direct track to Bankstown thrown in as a form of congratulations.

Well, who said there wasn’t a romantic side to aviation – congratulations Jake and Barbara.

Next Issue

The 132-page May edition of AA of course hosts Part I of our annual DofA Aircraft Register which includes all aircraft registered A through K. Part II of the Register will feature in our July edition and will include all registrations L through Z. May issue will also include a Profile on the Boeing Stratocruiser, an aircraft which at one time was dubbed the “Boeing Trimotor”! Also in the May issue will be an Airtest of the 400mph cruise Piper Cheyenne 400LS. Australian Aviation also visits Toulouse for a technical briefing on the new Airbus A330 twinjet and the UK to ascertain the full story behind Airship Industries AEW airship offer to the RAAF. The tribulations of David continue in our Air Safety series while on a different note we examine the findings of the Parliamentary Report into the Government Aircraft Factories. Then there are all our regular features – Technology Explained, Reece, Newsdesk, Yesteryear, Warbirds, Airline Affairs, Defence Update, Rotor Torque, Ultraflight, Airbands, Traffic, NZ News and Aeromart.

The 132-page May edition will be on sale early May so order a copy today from your newsagent or subscribe direct and save over $21 through the course of a three year subscription. Full details are presented on the centerspread insert in this issue.