Warbirds

Australia Post Aviation Book Release

On August 29, Australia Post released a new book that will interest all those who study Australian aviation. The new book, entitled Taking Flight, is an encapsulated history of aviation in Australia and its pioneers and at the same time illustrates many of the aviation stamps that have been released over the years. The book has 40 printed pages and a hard cover. Most illustrations are in colour. The author is Mark Clayton, well known as the executive officer of the National Air and Space Museum of Australia. At the same time as the release of the book, Australia Post released a series of new aviation stamps commemorating some of the early pioneers of aviation in Australia. A set of aviation orientated aerogrammes was also released at the same time as the stamp set. To officially release Taking Flight, Australia Post held the launch at a most appropriate location, the Moorabbin Air Museum at Moorabbin airport. A Tiger Moth and Chipmunk circled several local schools while airmail covers were delivered to waiting pupils. Taking Flight is available from Australia Post offices and agencies at a cost of $14.95 each. Besides readers getting one for themselves, this is an excellent publication to send to aviation-minded friends overseas. The book was launched to back up the ‘Aviation Feats’ stamp series which was depicted on the back cover of our September edition.

Vickers Vimy Replica Has Flown

One of the biggest replica aircraft built for many a year is that of the World War One Vickers Vimy built by Australian Lang Kidby and his American partner, Peter McMillan. Partly built in Australia and partly built in the USA, the big biplane uses two highly modified Chevrolet V8 car engines that deliver 450hp (335kW) each. The Vickers Vimy made the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic and also made the first successful flight from England to Australia in 1919. The original plan was to fly the replica across the Atlantic but this was later cancelled and in its place the machine is to fly from England to Australia, tracing as best as possible the route that Ross and Keith Smith took in their 1919 flight.

The replica took to the air in August and it is planned to commence the flight to Australia from September 11. The flight in the open cockpit aircraft will take a month, if nothing goes wrong. Landing at Darwin is scheduled for mid-October. The original Vickers Vimy was a wooden fabric-covered biplane. It had a wing span of 20m (67ft) and a length of 13m (43ft). Powered by two 360hp (270kW) Rolls-Royce Eagle engines, the Vimy was designed as a WWI bomber and later became an early airliner along with its counterpart, the Vimy Commercial. Cruise speed was all of 65kt (120kmh) over the 350 hours that it took the 1919 flight to fly to Australia. Lang and his copilot, Peter McMillan, will probably not do much better.

We look forward to seeing the aircraft on its arrival here in Australia. This must surely rate as one of the great adventures of recent years.

Another Catalina For New Zealand

Not to be discouraged by the loss of their Catalina during the delivery flight from the United States, the Kiwi Catalina group has all but taken delivery of the well-known Catalina, Z-CAT, that for the last few years has been running safari flights from Egypt through Africa to Zimbabwe and return. While it had been hoped that the original Catalina would be used for commercial operations, such as charter flights, it is planned that the new Cat will not be used for such operations. With a bit of luck, a good number of Australians will see the aircraft as it passes through the country en route to New Zealand. For those with an interest in the aircraft and its African trials and operations, a new book has been released that covers in glossy colour this magnificent machine. The book was written by Mike Shirley-Beavan of the UK-based Bushbuck Safaris, the tour operator that supported the African air safari operation from its very start. To obtain a copy, write to Mike Shirley-Beavan, Bushbuck Safaris, 48 High Street, Hungerford, Berkshire RG17 ONE, England. The cost is £21 including airmail postage to Australia.

Allocations Allocated Funds By State Government

The Victorian State Government has pledged $6 million towards setting up the National Air and Space Museum of Australia. The proposal is that the Museum will be built at Point Cook, previously the home to the RAAF’s No 1 FTS before its closure. Point Cook today is part of the Williams Air Base, combined with Laverton, and is the home to the recently expanded RAAF Museum. In revealing the pledge, it was acknowledged that the Federal Government now had to play its part to assist in getting the project up and running. The NASMA project, which if started this year, is expected to open by 1996. It is a joint effort of the Museum of Victoria, the state and federal governments and will also involve the aviation industry.

Did You Know Henry Vernon Worrell?

In the UK, Peter Clegg is writing a history of all Avro test pilots employed by A V Roe & Co in England from 1908 to the present day. Several of these had connections with Australia including Bert Hinkler. One pilot he has been unable to trace is Henry Vernon Worrall. Henry Worrall followed his son, John, and daughter Pam to Australia in the 1950s and died here around July or August 1957. Peter Clegg is anxious to contact H V Worrall’s relatives in Australia. They might be in any state including Tasmania where he lived with his missionary father, up to 1915, after being born in Fiji. Worrall flew some 3000 Avro aircraft including Lancasters, Ansons, Lincolns and Yorks. Can any reader help? Does anyone know the current whereabouts of the relatives of H V Worrall? If you can help please contact Mr Peter Clegg, ‘Squirrel’s Leap’ 9 Park Chase, Godalming, Surrey GU7 1TL, England.

Australian Naval Aviation Museum

The Museum has recently finalised its Museum Family Air Days for the remainder of 1994 and for 1995. October 30 – Spring Festival and Handicraft Exhibition. January 26, 1995 – Australia Day. April 15 – Easter. August 27 – Albatross Anniversary. October 29 — Spring Festival, Wings & Wheels. Joyflights will be available on all air days. Admission costs for the air days will be $10.00 a car or aircraft. Museum entry costs are $5 Adults. $3 Pensioners. $2 Children. $12 Family with three children.

Notes From America

Recently this writer was in the USA as the Tour Manager with the AA/Torii Tours Oshkosh and America tour group. During the course of the tour, a number of items turned up that readers will no doubt find of interest. At Oshkosh, there were no less than eight Corsairs flying during the daily airshow. Great stuff to see, hear and feel! Also at Oshkosh, Canberra A84-229/N229CA was noted on display still sporting its RAAF camouflage colour scheme. Next to the nose was a sign board incorrectly advising that it was a ‘Commonwealth Aircraft Canberra Mk.20″. The aircraft was built by the Government Aircraft Factory.

Chino, California, had a number of Australian connections. In one hangar stood the wingless Sanders T-6 Boomerang, N32CS/A46-139. The aircraft suffered an internal engine problem at Oshkosh ’93 and was trucked home from Wisconsin. The machine is currently up for sale, but the engine will need to be rebuilt or replaced before it flies again. In the same hangar were a number of T-28 Trojans including a T-28D, N2496, painted up in a two-tone camouflage scheme. This aircraft was noted in the September 1994 AA Trojan listing as having Australian connections. Owner Brian Kenney said that after he got the aircraft up and flying it had an internal engine failure that had resulted in a gear-up landing. The port wing was written off, but he had been fortunate enough to obtain a new unused wing still in a factory crate.

At the Sanders facility, two ex-Australian Sabres are being worked on while an ex-RAN Sea Venom keeps them company. The Sea Venom carried the numbers 873 on an undercarriage door making the aircraft WZ944. Museum Guides, the media, publications. Everywhere you go in the States you keep running into the statement that Charles Lindbergh was the first to fly across the Atlantic! One wonders what non-Americans should do to enlighten our friends that such is not the case. Perhaps the flight of the Lang Kidby Vickers Vimy replica to Australia will gain enough publicity to partly correct the situation.

August 4 saw the NASMA/HARS Connie at Pima County Museum, Tucson, Arizona, running up all four engines. This was apparently the first time for some months that the aircraft had run all four engines at once. The Connie was due to fly in September. With America, and indeed most of the wartime allied countries, gearing up for the 1995 50th anniversary celebrations of the end of World War Two, already a war of words is brewing about how the B-29 ‘Enola Gay’ should be portrayed. At present it is planned that the fuselage and one engine and propeller will go on display in the Smithsonian Institution’s building in Washington, DC in May next year. As there is not enough space to display the complete aircraft the final assembly will have to wait until the Dulles Airport Annex is built and completed, expected around the year 2000.

Meanwhile, there is controversy as to how the dropping of the first atomic bomb by the B-29 should be presented. Some groups are against the bomb and anything connected with it (which includes the Enola Gay). Others see the dropping of the bomb as a necessary evil that stopped further needless loss of life through prematurely bringing WW2 to an end, without the need for a bloody invasion of Japan, that was estimated to cost at least one million lives on both sides.

Readers will recall the P-38 that was recovered from under the Greenland ice cap in 1992. The rather bent remains of much of the aircraft was displayed at Oshkosh 93 and at the time it was stated that the machine would be restored to fly once again. At Middlesboro, Kentucky, the aircraft has been substantially rebuilt and, barring any major snags, will be seen flying at next year’s Oshkosh gathering. Truly an amazing recovery and rebuild.

In Brief

During early August, Martin Chadwick of Winrye Aviation was badly injured when he came into contact with the turning propeller of an Aero Commander. Although badly injured, Martin will recover and was due to leave hospital for a short term at the end of August. It is understood that it will be some time before he is able to return to work. We wish him well.

A former Australian Beaufighter is being rebuilt for the USAF Museum at Dayton. The centre fuselage section had been sent out to a USAF base for restoration but when it was recently returned it was decided that the work standard was not high enough and that it would have to be done again!

Noted in a recent edition of a UK publication was an advert for the Australian-built Pietenpol Sky Scout type aircraft that has been hanging in a Tamworth furniture shop for some 30 years. Named Miss Mogul, the machine was built in 1936 by Alan Mogg of Ashfield, NSW. Powered by a Salmson radial engine of 60hp (45kW), the aircraft first flew in 1939 and apparently also flew during the postwar years.