Warbirds

In 1972 East West once more obtained VH-ASM for planned restoration and display but the project did not move along until 1979 when John Gallagher of Loftus, NSW, was asked to restore the historic aircraft to static display standard. Over the next seven years John worked night and day to complete the task in time to have it ready for the 40th anniversary of the Airline. The Anson has since been transported by road to Tamworth and will eventually go on display there in a new building for all to see the aircraft that started an airline.

Comper Swift Flying High

Following a total rebuild Comper Swift, VH-ACG, is back in the air again.

Built in the UK in the 1930’s the historic single seat all wood monoplane was one of the best looking sporting types of its day powered by a Gipsy Major 1 engine the machine was rebuilt in Perth, WA, over a 1 O year period by owner Doug Muir. Researching the history of the Comper, Mr Muir found that it set several flying records in the USA before being shipped to Australia.

Three Comper Swifts came to Australia. One crashed and was written off while another, powered by a Pobjoy radial engine, awaits rebuild.

Catalina, Frigate Bird II, on Display

Sir Gordon Taylor’s famous Catalina, VH-ASA, ‘Frigate Bird II’ has gone on display at Sydney’s power House Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.

World famous Australian aviator and navigator, Sir Gordon Taylor, charted the last great ocean air route between Australia and South America in Frigate Bird II in 1951. The flight was not without incident. Taylor later wrote a book about the flight entitled simply ‘Frigate Bird’.

The wartime Cat. was donated to the Museum in 1961 and has recently been restored by Hawker Pacific at Bankstown.

Weighing some eight tonnes the Catalina is suspended from the ceiling of the Museum in a flying position. With a wing span of 32 metres ‘Frigate Bird II’ is claimed to be the largest aircraft ever to be hung in any Museum.

Meanwhile, in the USA

Over the last decade or so Australia has seen the departure of some Warbirds in the form of various Mustangs and Seafurys. Some of these machines have since been sighted on the US Warbirds circuit and even racing at Reno! One such racer was #96 ‘Jeanie Too’ NL51WB reportedly ex A68-1 and VH-EMU Which was recovered from the Emu A-bomb test sight in SA Also noted was N71FT a much modified Mustang formerly A68 679 last seen incomplete in the Mildura Warbirds Museum.

An ex Australian Sea Fury seen at the ’86 Reno Races was N4434P previously WH589 of the RAN, now owned and flown by Lloyd Hamilton.

Wirraway Rebuild Start

At Albury, NSW, a Wirraway’s steel tube fuselage is being worked on by well known Warbirds rebuilder, John Delaney.

Owned by Sydney Photographer Peter Sledge, who recently sold a composite Spitfire to the UK, the Wirraway is at present just a steel tube fuselage and lower pan assembly. Much work including the gathering of needed wings and tail, engine and undercart etc. will be required before the machine really takes shape. However, it is the exciting start to another Warbird and one that was designed and built locally.

John Delaney, best known for his rebuild of Col Pay’s Spitfire, is highly optimistic about the project which is in the same hangar as the already flying Wirraway VH-WIR/A20-652.

Golden Eagle 50th Anniversary

September 26, 1987 marks the 50th anniversary of the first flight of Australia’s oldest airworthy sailplane, the Golden Eagle.

Designed and built by Goff Richardson of Melbourne the machine made its first flight at Laverton, near Melbourne, in September 1937. The sailplane is still in excellent condition and is flown regularly at Antique aircraft and glider rallies and Airshows. To celebrate the Jubilee the present custodians of the Golden Eagle, Alan and Ian Patching, have planned 4 days of flying at Bacchus Marsh airfield, Vic. 24th- 27th September, with a barbecue on the Saturday evening.

Anyone who has flown, been involved with or is just interested in the Golden Eagle is invited to attend the rally. Contact Alan Patching on (03) 817 5362.

Zero Instruments Needed

At RAAF Base Wagga, NSW, work is progressing rapidly on the rebuild of Zero A6M2 s/n 5784.

Owned by the Australian War Memorial the WWII Japanese fighter was recovered from Gasmata, PNG in 1977 and after storage was delivered to Wagga in 1982.

The Zero is a very unique machine in that it was flown by Japanese ace Saburo Saki of the 204th Kokutai (squadron) of the Tainan Air Corps. Saburo is alive in Japan and it is hoped to have him come to Australia when the rebuild is completed and the machine is handed over to the War Memorial.

Historical authenticity has been the motto for the restoration and the aim is to get the machine complete and back to its wartime finish. While the major structure is complete one area where problems have been encountered is in obtaining all the cockpit instruments and fittings.

As the tide of the war changed and Australian troops and Air Force personnel overran Japanese positions, they often came across wrecked or abandoned Zero aircraft from which they took cockpit items as a souvenir such as the parts now needed to complete the AWM Zero. It is to these personnel that the AWM now asks “Do you have any of these items, can you help us complete the rebuild”?

The items required are as follows: fuselage fuel tank gauge, gunsight type 98 (reflector), wing tanks fuel gauge, fresh air duct, radio direction indicator, radio control unit, magneto switch, 20mm cannon master switch, oil temperature gauge, oxygen supply gauge, tachometer, hydraulic pressure gauge, artificial horizon, gas/air bottle pressure gauges, turn and bank indicator.

If any Warbirds reader can help with the supply of these much needed items please contact : Mr Bob Cowley, AWM, Canberra, ACT, 2601. Ph: (062) 434 211

NZ Warbirds Are Go

Across the Tasman, in NZ, the Warbird and Museum movement is alive and flourishing.

The RNZAF is currently finalising plans to deliver a Bristol 170 Freighter to the Canadian Warplane Heritage in exchange for Bristol Bolingbroke components that will be a static restoration project. The Bolingbroke is the Canadian built version of the Blenheim I that many New Zealanders flew in WWII. An F-86F Sabre was recently obtained by NZ Warbirds from the Philippines, in the wings. A Hawker Sea Fury is moving towards completion later this year. And a DH-112 Venom is also being worked up to flying standard. The NZ Confederate Air Force recently took delivery of a Beech 18 finished in the uniform of a Wartime USAAC C-45 plus an ex Australian C-47, VH-SBT. Last year a Cavalier P-51D was obtained from the Indonesian Air Force in a swap for a Vampire.

Meanwhile the Kiwi’s are running an appeal for funds to purchase the sole airworthy NZ Mustang, NZ2415/ZK-TAF, as its owner Tim Wallis wants to finance the purchase of a Spitfire MK. XVI due in NZ by the end of 1987. One wonders where that is coming from!

New International Warbirds Organisation

‘Warbirds International’ is the name of a new organisation founded recently in the UK by Paul A Coggan.

Paul, Who resigned from his position as an Air Traffic Controller in the RAF to set up W/W, came up with the idea after running ‘Mustang International’ for some eight years. “Basically”, said Coggan, “we just expanded the successful Mustang International concept to include all Warbirds”.

With the motto ‘Flying Yesterday’s Airpower’ Warbirds Worldwide was founded to promote the restoration, rebuilding and operation of Vintage Combat aircraft – Warbirds. The first issue of a quarterly 48 page magazine has been published and includes fabulous photos of Warbirds around the World. Unlike American Warbird magazines which have a tendency to report on ‘American only’, Warbirds Worldwide has already shown it will cover Warbirds across the Globe.

Warbirds Worldwide can be contacted at 19 Highcliffe Ave. Shirebrook, Mansfield, Notts NG2O 8NB, England. Subscription rates are A$40. 00 PA for four issues.

In Brief

• During April an RAAF funeral was held at Lae War Cemetery for the four crew members of an RAAF Beaufort bomber that crashed on June 25, 1942, in the Tapini area, some 60 miles North West of Port Moresby.

The Beaufort, A9-52, crashed into the side of a mountain following a bombing attack onto Salamana. The wreckage was found last November. The pilot of the twin engined machine, Sqn Ldr Charles Sage, and his crew were the first Beaufort crew to die on operations in the S-W Pacific area in WWII.

• A new film entitled ‘The Wreck of the Stinson’ is being made for the Ten network. Starring Australian actor Jack Thompson the film is about the crash of a three-engined Stinson airliner on February 19, 1937, while on a flight from Brisbane to Sydney. An official search for the aircraft was unsuccessful but on February 28 bushman Bernard O’Reilly started his search in the Mcpherson Ranges and found the wreck in time to save two survivors. Thompson will star as O’Reilly. One three-engined Stinson of the type concerned still flies in the USA having been recovered from the backwoods some years ago and restored.

• After being on display at the Queensland Chewing Gum Field Air Museum for the last seven years, Douglas C-47, formerly VH-AEQ, was scheduled to arrive at the Drage Airworld Air Museum, Wangaratta, Vic. on Sunday July 12th. Owned by Malcolm Long, the C-47 was part of the Warbird display at Chewing Gum Field that Long is now relocating at Wangaratta