Warbirds

The subject aircraft, V5-NCG, serial 45564, is a very unique aircraft.

Built in 1958 it is the last DC6B built. It is also the last Douglas radial engine airliner built and as such holds a unique place in the world of aviation, old airliners in particular.

Bill Gray, who was involved with the proposed operation of a DC3 operation in WA, is the man behind the DC6B flying visit. Bill is gathering material to write a book on the life and times of the DC6B here in Australia. He has asked readers for any and all material about the operation of the DC6B here in Australia, no matter how small or how trivial. He can be contacted at [email protected]. As a type the DC6B had a successful and safe run. It had one event of note and that was when a propeller blade departed from an engine of an in-flight passenger airliner due to a mechanical fault. The engine became partly dislodged. The Captain flew the aircraft over Port Phillip Bay and after a few ‘pull ups’ managed to dislodge the engine and make a successful landing at Essendon airport. The aircraft was later returned to service.

The flying visit by the ‘6 will be one of great interest to aviation enthusiasts keen to sample what it was like to fly in a four engined commercial airliner from yesteryear.

Aircraft Parts Auction

Not since the 1993 Bankstown auction of 36 former RAAF CT4A Airtrainer aircraft and parts has Australia seen an aircraft parts auction as big as that held at Kyneton Victoria. Held in the last weekend of March the auction was the remainder of the Hughes Trading aircraft parts inventory. Hughes Trading had a warehouse and sales facility at Coburg, in the north of Melbourne, but this was closed in the 1990 with a slowing down of sales from its depleted WWII stock of mainly aircraft hardware.

The Kyneton auction was reportedly the last of the Hughes hardware that had been moved to Kyneton when the Coburg facility was closed.

Of the 1026 lots for auction the majority were aircraft items with a few outside non-aviation vendor items. The auction attracted over 300 interested parties. More than 240 persons registered as possible bidders. It was an interesting event.

There were no altimeters or air speed indicators but there were items reportedly for Beaufort, Anson, Kittyhawk, Spitfire, Boomerang, Sabre, Vampire, Wirraway, Catalina, Neptune, Lincoln, B24, Mosquito and Anson aircraft. The auction started at 10 am and closed close to 6 pm.

Of the aircraft parts auctioned a lot could be called minor bits but there was also some tooling that went for almost give away prices. A selection of major aircraft items and prices went as follows; Vampire throttle quadrant $180, 19 Wirraway rear canopy panels $250, two Armstrong Siddley Cheetah radial engines at $1300 each, Rolls Royce Avon jet engine $4500, Armstrong Siddley jet engine $1300, Boomerang tailwheel $70, Wirraway flap rams $200, DC-2 co-pilots seat $100, DC-2 engine dish pan $140, DC-2 air intake cowl $90, Lincoln mid upper turret canopy $100, Lancaster mid upper turret canopy $100, a B-24 rudder $350, Sikorsky Kingfisher wing float (in need of some TLC) $2500, Vampire ejection seat $1050 and a Sabre ejection seat $700. Like a lot of parts auctions a number of the items put up for sale could probably have better graced the bottom of a dump master bin but as they say, one mans ones junk is another man’s treasure. The fellow who bought a pallet load of unidentified aluminium wheel hubs probably had a visit to a scrap metal dealer in mind and no doubt a few of the sold items will end up on E-bay for local or overseas sale.

Sabre Rattling

At Beetles park, Raymond Terrace, NSW, former RAAF CAC Sabre, A94-959, has stood on a plinth for many years slowly deteriorating due to the elements. While the deterioration was obvious to all that viewed the fighter the Port Stephens Council elected to put restoration work of the aircraft on the back burner. Such was the plight of the aircraft that the Albion Park based HARS made a presentation to the Port Stephens Council to obtain the machine on March 30. This resulted in a counter proposal by the Save our Sabre Group. The SoSG has produced a booklet entitled, The Terrace Sabre, a vision squandered, to help promote saving the aircraft. This 24 page A4 booklet covers world production of the Sabre as well as a history of the A94-959 plus giving a listing of surviving Australian Sabres and a performance summary. The cost of $15 inc. P&P. Available from Man & Aerial Machines, 5 Tea Tree Avenue, Aberglasslyn, NSW. 2320.

Melton Centenary Of Flight Airshow

The debate still goes on as to who was the first person to fly in Australia but at Melton, Victoria, on Saturday 20th March an airshow entitled the Houdini-Centenary Air Show was held to celebrate the flight by noted escape artist Harry Houdini at nearby Diggers Rest on the 18th March 1910, On that day Houdini took to the air in a French Voisin biplane. He made what is today said to be the first officially recorded controlled powered flight.

The airshow was attended by a smaller crowd than expected, perhaps the Saturday date had a bearing on attendance, by the weather held off with mild winds, a head wind, the sun behind the spectators and a good number of interesting aircraft on flying display and static display. Alas a radio controlled model of the Voisin failed to get airborne. Aircraft in the flying display included an Aero L-39C Albatross, the DH60 VH-UAE, Winjeel VH-CZE, DH94 Moth Minor VH-CZB, Curtiss P-40 VH-HWK, Avro cadet VH-AGH, Vampire VH-ZVZ, DC-3 VH-TMQ, Yak 9 VH-YIX and T-28 VH-NAW. There was an interesting selection of aircraft on display in the static parking area. The Melton airshow was probably the largest event celebrating the first flights in Australia.

Given the involvement by the Labour Government in the pilot strike in 1989 and that government saying how important aviation is to Australia one finds it a bit odd that the Australian Centenary of Flight has effectively had no government recognition, save for a stamp issue of the first aviators, Houdini, Defries and Duigan, by Australia Post, In the USA the government spent millions to celebrate the first flight by the Wright Brothers. Not so in Australia.

Narromine Wright Flyer To Fly Or Not?

To fly or not? That is the question around the NSW Narromine aerodrome where the Wright Flyer replica is hangared. Built by Keith and Eric Hayden the replica took some five years to research and two years to build. It was flown several times by the late Col Pay and has not flown since his death in December 2007.

A museum building is proposed as part of an aerodrome redevelopment project if the Federal Government supplies the funds. The Wright Flyer would take pride of place in the museum building and be protected from the elements.

This is not happening with the replica currently in a hangar. Meanwhile the Wright Flyer Committee is leaning towards flying the replica again while the Hayden’s are of the view that in its current condition the Wright is not safe.

First Flight Taylor Glider Replica On Display

George Taylor made the first flight of a human controlled heavier-than-air aircraft in Australia at Narrabeen Beach, Sydney, NSW, on Sunday December 5, 1909. To commemorate that first flight the Australian Gliding Museum has built three replicas of the Taylor man carrying glider. The original is understood to have been lost in a sea landing at Narrabeen in 1910. One of those replica Taylor gliders went on display in the main hall of the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, at the end of March. The craft was suspended from the roof in a way that visitors could see the machine as if it were aloft at the beach launching site.

The original craft was so successful that not only Taylor flew it but also his wife, Florence, and two colleagues. Another of the replica gliders is to go to the Australian National Aviation Museum at its Moorabbin airport facility.

Register Update

A lot of movements in the civil register this month. From New Zealand we learn that the two Polikarpov I-153s’, ZK-JJB and ZK-JKM, serial 6326 and 7027, were struck off the NZ register on March 17 and March 15 as exported. It is understood that the two aircraft have gone to Europe.

Former Australian Yak-52 VH-YFT became ZK-ZAH on February 15 to Rustic Road Ltd of New Plymouth. DH Sea Venom Mk.4 ZK-VNM changed ownership on March 18 to Wanganui Sea and Air Charters of Wanganui. The change may see more of the aircraft in the air in future.

Meanwhile in Australia the HARS Douglas C54E-DC, VH-PAF has had a change of registration to VH-EAY. The change happened on February 23.

Royston Ferris has had no less than six former Singapore Air Force Siai Marchetti S-211 trainers registered to him. VH-BZV serial 010/02-007, VH-BZX 013/02-010, VH-CGL 04/02-029 and VH-CHK 031/02-020 were added to the register on March 9. Marchetti VH-CJU 037/02-026 and VH-CKJ 036/02-025 were added on March 11.

A number of ownership changes of interest have taken place. Who said the Global Financial Crisis has slowed down aviation? DH94 VH-AGO went to Valerie Machin of Blue Bay, NSW, on March 17. DHC-1 Chipmunk VH-DHX went to Brian Kelly of Warners bay, NSW on February 24. Beech D17-S VH-FNS serial 3108 went to Shine Air P/L, Dardanup, WA, on March 29. Boeing A75N1 Stearman VH-RPS went to Ben Merkenhof of Mayfield, NSW, on March 26 and Beagle A61 VH-WFM changed to new owner Neil Wilson of Denison, Victoria, on March 25.

In Brief

• The EAA Airventure at Oshkosh is this year expecting more than 25 DC3/C47 aircraft as part of the 75th anniversary of the first flight of the DC3 on December 17, 1935. It will probably be the last large gathering of the type of which there at best 100 still airworthy in the USA.

• A replica DH50 is soon to go on display at the Qantas Founders Outback Museum at Longreach, Queensland. The big biplane will add to the already impressive collection of aircraft in the museum.

• A South Australian based Harvard was damaged in a groundloop at Jamestown in the first weekend of April. It is reported that a wing, propeller and undercarriage were damaged in the accident.

Contact Dave by email at [email protected]