Warbirds

The aircraft operates from the beach at the Spit at Southport.

That Winjee Flys

Winjeel enthusiasts will no doubt have been following the progress of A85-407 which Winrye Aviation has been bringing up to airworthy standard at Bankstown Airport, NSW.

The machine now carries the orangeand white colour scheme and markings of A85-443, which is still flying with the RAAF, and on Friday September 20th it took to the air under the weight of civil registration, VH-NTJ. (Refer p. 45 Sept 91 AA)

Another of the type in the air as a local warbird and with a most interesting and unusual colour scheme.

England to Australia Air Rally 1992

In case you missed being part of the action in the World VintageAir Rally you now have a chance to make up for that by being part of the October 1992 Wings across the World England to Australia Air Rally.

The rally is being organised by Airworld Promotions Ltd of Kent, England. The firm has no connection with the Airworld Air Museum at Wangaratta, Vic.

One of the key organisers is Queenslander Lang Kidby who ran the recent successful World VintageAir Rally. The rally will be restricted to artlaximum of 50 aircraft that meet the following criteria: Built prior to 1960 and have at least two of the following – tail wheel, radial engine/s or have fabric covering on at least the control surfaces. Proceeds from the Airworld rally will go to the Air Ambulance Service in Great Britain.

Sponsorship for entrants is being sought and advertising on each aircraft will be a condition of entry. Given that Lang Kidby has already flown the planned route, most of the unknown, but not the sheer adventure, will have been removed from the flight.

Entrants will also enjoy flying 10,000 miles across the world in Antique and Classic aircraft and in the company of fellow like minded aviators. No doubt some life long bonds will be forged. For those that are not in the actual rally it will be interesting to follow the progress of the entrants and at the end there may be a chance to purchase an interesting aircraft.

For entry details contact Airworld Promotions Ltd, 2 West Gate Court Avenue, Canterbury, Kent CT2 8DW, England. Ph: (0227) 47 0917 or Fax: (0227) 45 9884.

Lockheed 10 Electra Flys

Friday September the 6th saw a real piece of Australian Aviation history when the newly rebuilt Lockheed 10 Electra, VH-UZO, took to the air for the first time in 24 years. Owner Laurie Ogle purchased the all metal twin back in 1981 and has since spent a lot of time and dollars restoring the machine back to airworthy condition. During the rebuild the original Wright engines were replaced by P&W R. 985 engines and in so doing altered the model designation from 108 to a model 1OA.

With its original Ansett Airways name ansertes’ the first flight of the historic Lockheed was made at Bankstown Airport by an American pilot who had owned an L. 10 in the US and who had flown many hours on the type.

A total of 156 Lockheed 1Os’ were built. Some nine are still registered in the US while a half dozen more are in air museums.

Beaufighter on Display

At Moorabbin Airport the Moorabbin Air Museum recently opened a further 4,000sq ft of undercover exhibit area the centre piece of which is the restored Beaufighter Mk. 21.

Although having used serial A8-328 the machine has been painted up in the colour scheme and markings of A8-39 which served in operations with No 31 Squadron and which was eventually lost in a mid-air collision in June 1945.

In June the No 31 Squadron Beaufighter Association unveiled a plaque at the Museum commemorating the Squadrons wartime exploits.

Mig Update

With three SBLim-2/MiG-15UTI now flying over Australia readers will no doubt find a summary of these aircraft of interest.

The first to appear on the Australian register was VH-XIG, formally registered on 27/9/90. With serial 612782 this aircraft is owned by John Weymouth of Victoria River Downs, NT. Sporting a large 15 on the nose the MiG made its first flight on 1/11/90 from Essendon Airport, Vic, at the hands of Harry Bradford. A few days later it was on display at the Adelaide F1 Grand Prix in company with a Sabre and Mustang!

The machine has also been based at RAAF Williamtown, NSW, and a late report has it based at Victoria River Downs Station during the dry season. The aircraft was restored at Essendon by Geoff Hunt and Trevor Fuller.

Next is serial 3804 owned by Barry Batagol of Melbourne. Registered as VH-DIE (!) on 18/1/91 this aircraft also carries number 15 on the nose and was restored by Monty Armstrong’s Airepair firm at Essendon Airport. Bill Collings made the first flight in July (refer pies p. 42 Sept 91 AA).

Number three is serial IAO6007, registered as VH-BPG on 7/2/91 to Hockey Teloar of Sydney this MiG carries the number 607 on the nose. Harry Bradford made the test flight in April out of Bankstown Airport and the aircraft is now based at Nowra RAN Air Station pending lengthening the runway at Bankstown. Winrye Aviation Pty Ltd of Bankstown carried out the restoration work on the former Polish Air Force jet trainer.

Eight two seat MiG-15s’ were originally imported into Australia and of these three are now flying. Reports have it that more are soon to follow giving real force to the local warbird movement. Even more interesting would be to have all three in the air at once.

Australian Warbirds Meet

The weekend of September 21/22 saw the Annual General meeting of the Australian Warbirds Ltd take place at Canberra, ACT.

Elections resulted in Randel McFarlane as President, Bruce Andrews as Vice President, Bruce Simpson as ,Secretary, Jeff lies asTreasurer and Brian Candler as Assistant Secretary. At the function held at the Hyatt Hotel on the Saturday night WynrieAviation was awarded the honour of Best (Warbird) Maintenance organisation, for the second year in a row, while Hockey Treloar took the trophy for Best Restored Warbird for his MiG-15.

P-39 Exported to UK

Recent months have seen the export of a Bell P-39 Airacobra to the UK.

Recovered from Woodlark Island, PNG, in 1980, the machine was on display, until recently, at the South Australian Aviation Museum at Port Adelaide, SA The Airacobra is basically a model P-39K comprising fuselage sections from aircraft serial number 42-4312 and 42-4368. No engine, prop or wheels went with the aircraft which will require a total rebuild even though some work has been done on it. The wing is reported to be from a P-39D and although it had not been used will still require rebuilding due to damage and its time in the jungle.

The new owner in the UK is reported to be Stephen Grey of Old Flying Machine Company fame, based at Duxford. The OFMC has a good number of former Australian aircraft with a Mustang, Sea Fury and now the Airacobra in the collection.

Australian Sabres in the USA

As the interest in jet warbirds increases in the USA, one type that the Americans apparently cannot get enough of, literally, is the North American F-86 Sabre.

In the USA most Sabres, as an early jet fighter, were scrapped many years ago and even today the US Navy is contributing to the demise of the Sabre population by using surviving F-86s’ as unmanned target drones.

Never the less there are some 20 privately owned Sabre warbirds with around a dozen that actually fly. Not surprising is the fact that Sabres are being imported into the USA both from Canada and Australia where they were manufactured under license. In Canada the Sabre was built as the Canadair CL-13B and 1,815 came off the production line there.

Meanwhile, in Australia, 112 CA-27 Sabres were produced by CAC. This model incorporated some 60% new fuselage structure due to the installation of a Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet. The resulting aircraft is allegedly the best of the numerous derivatives of the North American F-86F Sabre.

The American A-F model Sabres used different models of the General Electric J-47 engine ranging in thrust from 5,200 to 5,900Ibs static thrust. The Australian Sabres were powered by the Rolls Royce Avon producing 7,500lbs, of thrust reportedly giving the best thrust to weight ratio of any Sabre ever built.

Three Australian built Sabres are now in the USA. These were imported into the US by Dennis Sanders of Sanders Aircraft of Chino, California. The serial numbers of the trio are understood to be A94-909, A94-916 and A94-954. Of these, A94-916 is now with Doug Schultz and associates in Florida while A94-909 was still being rebuilt by Sanders Aircraft in August this year. The third machine, A94-954, is now on display, minus all paintwork and sans engine, in the Fighter Jets Museum at Chino Airport. The FJM is a division of the Planes of Fame Museum.

Commenting on the cost of operating a Sabre compared to a Mustang the owner of an F-86A, John Dilley, has said that after considering all factors including engine TSO, maintenance and fuel burn the cost difference becomes much less noticeable.

That may be so but will the sound of a GE or Avon turbojet ever seem better than a Merlin?

Rare Soviet Aircraft to Us Display

Later this year a dozen rare Soviet fighter aircraft will arrive in the USA, from the Soviet Union, to go on display at the Champlin Fighter Museum at Mesa, Arizona. In a perfect example of Perestroika, the three year loan was signed during a recent visit to Moscow by the Museum owner, Doug Champlin. The star of the collection is a Lavochkin La-7, the actual aircraft flown by leading Soviet Ace, Air Marshall Ivan Kopzehdub. The collection also includes a MiG-15, a MiG-17, a Yak-9, an IL-2 Shturmovik as well as a Yak-15 jet fighter and a pre WWII Pokikarpov 1-16 Rata.

This is the first time that such a collection has been exhibited in the West. The display collection will present Soviet aircraft that fought in the Spanish Civil War and on the Russian fronts in WWII, as well as post war jets.

The collection is certain to create a lot of interest with anyone having even a basic interest in Soviet fighter aircraft design and which until now would simply not have been possible to see, study and appreciate.

As the Iron Curtain parts more and more aviation surprises are certain to emerge from the Soviet Union and its former bloc countries.

In Brief

• The former Ansett DC-4, VH-INX, is no more. For more than 20 years the old piston transport was part of the scene at Melton Air field on the western side of Melbourne. Trucked to Melton, from Essendon, in the late sixties and reassembled it was originally intended to turn the aircraft into a restaurant. This did not eventuate and the machine fell into disrepair.

Recently it developed structural problems and it was decided to break it up for scrap. By October the old Douglas had been cut into several sections and was closer to being an aluminium ingot than to being an aircraft. Vale.

• Lloyd Nolen, founder and patriarch of the Confederate Air Force has passed away. It was in 1957 that Nolen together with a group a former WWII pilots felt that something should be done to preserve the great combat aircraft of the war that were then being cut up for scrap. That something developed into the now well known Confederate Air Force organisation, based initially at Mercedes, Texas, and later at nearby Harlingen. Recently the CAF moved to Midland, TX. Nolen died on April 16th following a heart attack. Lloyd Nolen may have gone but his organisation, the CAF, continues on

• For the ABC Mini series ‘Halfway Around The World’, the story of the 1934 Centenary air race between England and Australia, two replica DH. 88 Comet aircraft were built. Where are they now? One replica, with two Gipsy six engines, ended up in the UK where auctioneers Christies put it under the hammer in April. It went for a reported £17,000 to an unknown buyer. The second of the replicas is now with the Clyde North Aviation Museum, a fledgling organisation, at Clyde North, East of Melbourne, Vic. The group also has a DH Vampire.

• The last week in August saw the original 1910 Duigan biplane, the first Australian built aircraft to fly, take to the air again as it was raised into position at Victoria’s new science museum at Spotswood. On hand was Susan Duigan whose uncle Jack and her father Reg built the aircraft.

It is unfortunate to note that the historic biplane nearly didn’t make it to its last resting place because in 1986, when it was being transported between Abbottsford and Avalon for conservation work, the load became loose on the transport and two ailerons and some interplane struts fell from the contractors truck and were destroyed by passing vehicles . A sombre warning to all persons moving historic and warbird aircraft to take extra care to ensure that the load is properly secured.

• During WWII, Bairnsdale RAAF base in SE: Victoria was an extremely busy place as an operational training unit. Over the war years Beauforts, Hudsons, Oxfords, Fairey Battles and later Avro Ansons were based at Bairnsdale. T hese operations were not without loss of both men and aircraft.

To commemorate the 5 0th anniversary of the first RAAF Unit, No 7 Squadron, to occupy the base in 1942 an Air Show is to be held on Sunday May 3rd, 1992, at the Bairnsdale Aerodrome and former RAAF base.

The Air Show will be held in conjunction with the unveiling of a memorial at the Beaufort Gardens to commemorate the efforts of all themen and women who were stationed at RAAF Bairnsdale during 1942-46 .

• T he opening of the new Melbourne Central shopping complex in September brought with it two touches of aviation. Sharing the glassed-in cone that provides a cover over the old Shot Tower building are a scale replica of the Wright Brothers Flyer aircraft and a colourful 19th-century-style gas-filled balloon.

• Famous Australian war writer, Paul Brickhill, is dead. Brickhill is best known for his books, The Great Escape and The Dam Busters, which were based on wartime adventures. Both books were later turned into successful films. Brickhill died in Sydney in April aged 74.