Warbirds

At Darwin another Corsair project is getting closer to taking to the air. This F4U-5NL model Corsair, owned by Graham Hosking of Tyabb, Victoria was recently rolled out of the rebuild hangar. The big fighter, Bu. 124493, was once with the Honduran Air Force.

Later it was owned by the RNZAF which swapped it to Graham Hosking for a Curtiss P-40N. With a blue paint scheme the machine will take up the markings of a Honduran Air Force fighter.

Like the Mareeba Corsair the Darwin machine still has a way to go.

to import a Douglas Skyraider fighter bomber. NVVM officials have confirmed the acquisition but as yet no details have been released of when the aircraft is to arrive in Australia or where it is coming from.

The non-profit NVVM is dedicated to the preservation and presentation of the story of all Vietnam veterans in Australia’s longest war – the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1972. The museum has on display a Bell AH-1G Huey Cobra helicopter gunship, a Bell Sioux Reconnaissance helicopter, a Westland Wessex Mk2B anti-submarine helicopter and a Bell Iroquois, while a Canberra bomber is in storage pending restoration.

All the aircraft were relevant to the time that Australia was involved with the Vietnam conflict.

The NVVM’s Skyraider will

go on static display, and when it arrives will be the sole example of its type in Australia.

Register Update

Bell OH-58A ZK-IXL, c/n 44062 (and ex VH-FWX), was placed on the New Zealand register on August 28 to Ludgater Holdings Ltd of Christchurch. Meanwhile New Zealand Aerospace CT-4A Airtrainer, ZK-CTA, c/n 055 and ex RAAF A19-055, was struck off the NZ register on August 21 as having been exported. It was noted at Kerikeri on August 14 en route to Norfolk Island. The aircraft is understood to have been bought by BAE Systems and will be overhauled and put on the Australia register for use at the BAE Systems Flight Training

NEW ARRIVAL Grumman Mallard N611DS arrived at Archerfield on July 30 after crossing the Pacific. It is pictured here transiting the Gold Coast. (Terry Magee)

The National Vietnam Veterans Museum on Victoria’s Phillip Island has confirmed plans

Liberator Shady Lady Aviation Doco Film Release

A new epic aviation documentary film Shady Lady has recently been completed and is due to be released later this year.

Filmed in the UK, Australia and America, Shady Lady is the story of a USAAF 5th Air

Skyraider For Phillip Island Museum

College at Tamworth. Several other CT-4A aircraft have been bought up by BAE in recent times for use at Tamworth.

In Australia a Bell P-39K Airacobra, serial 42-4312, was added to the register as VH-KWL on August 1 to Robert Greinert of Austinmer, NSW. The aircraft is reported as a rebuild project now underway.

Another addition to the register is Bucker T-131 PA Jungmann VH-YUX. With serial T-131. 104 it was added to the register on August 24 to Hal Leaver of Grafton, NSW.

Auster J5G VH-NVY has been returned to the register.

With c/n 3163 the machine went back onto the register on August 16 to Terance Hetherington of Nowra, NSW but is to be operated by HARS of Albion Park, NSW.

Force Consolidated B-24D Liberator, serial 42-40369. Part of the 528th Squadron of the 389th Bomb Group, on Friday August 13 1943 it departed Darwin part of a group of 12 Liberators bound for the oil refineries at Balikpapan, Borneo.

The 4,345km round trip was the longest-ever bombing mission in aviation history at that time. The aircraft successfully reached the target and dropped its bombs, but on the return to Australia it became lost in bad weather. Running low on fuel it force-landed on a remote salt pan on the Anjo peninsula in the Kimberley region, about 100km northwest of the RAAF landing strip at Drysdale Mission, near Kalumburu and 502km southwest of their takeoff point in Darwin.

The aircraft had been in the air for 16 hours and 35 minutes, and on landing the nose gear leg collapsed. One crew member received minor facial injuries.

The crew managed to contact base and supplies were dropped to them. Eventually they were returned to base. The local Aboriginal population helped the crew to survive and return to safety. Later they were to assist in the recovery of the bomber.

Amazingly the Liberator was to fly again! The nose section was patch-repaired on site and on September 10 it was flown out to Darwin. It never flew again in combat.

The film triggered President Obama to issue a presidential Citation to the crew last year which was presented in Sydney to the aircraft commander’s widow.

The film runs for 87 minutes.

Produced by Fact Not Fiction Films, details about the film can be found at https://factnotfictionfilms. com.

Qantas Founders Museum Update

Located at Longreach, Queensland the Qantas Founders Museum continues to change and expand.

The recently-arrived Catalina has been placed between the 747 and the 707, and has had

READY TO GO T-28B Trojan VH-RNT made its first post reassembly flight on August 31. (Lenn Bayliss)

its engines removed. The museum is keen to transport the aircraft to Sydney to enable the modification and maintenance required to bring the machine up to display standard. The QFM is encouraging interested people and members to support this project by making tax deductible donations.

A new exhibit at the museum is three F-35 simulators – for some serious fun! The Australian-designed and made simulators are fully networked so that players can fly them on solo or combined missions in a half hour session.

The next step is to install a Bristol F2B simulator (currently being designed and built). It will be the only one of its kind in the world. The Bristol was a WW1 fighter bomber biplane that later enjoyed a life in civil use in the 1920s. The Bristol simulator is expected to be launched early in 2013 and will make a fascinating contrast to the F-35 simulator! Meanwhile, back in June the museum’s 747 was reopened

to visitors after a new concrete reinforced pad was installed to support the aircraft’s nosewheel.

In March the museum found some ground movement under the big jet’s nosewheel, necessitating the remedial work.

Rathmines Catalina Festival

Rathmines, the former WW2 base on the shore of Lake Macquarie, NSW is the place to be on November 3 for the annual Rathmines Catalina Festival.

The star attraction will be the HARS Catalina VH-PBY which will land on Lake Macquarie and then come ashore on the original ramp that was used by the RAAF during WW2 operations.

The festival will help raise funds for the construction of a future hangar and museum to be built at Rathmines – on the site of the original RAAF facility – to house Catalina VH-CAT, which is currently under restoration at Bankstown.

Remembering The Raaf’s Worst Peacetime Accident
On August 28 1972 DHC-4 Caribou A4-233 came down in the Kudjeru Gap in Papua New Guinea, claiming the lives of 25 of the 29 on board in the RAAF’s worst peacetime crash.

The aircraft had been returning high school students and instructors to Port Moresby following an Australian Army School Cadet Camp in Lae.

The majority of the cadets were from De La Salle High School.

It is believed that poor weather forced the crew to retrace their route back through the Kudjeru gap, but the aircraft’s starboard wing impacted with treetops on a ridgeline.

After three days of searching rescuers discovered five surviving cadets, but one of these later died in hospital.

On August 28 Defence representatives joined members of the Papua New Guinea community at Port Moresby in remembering the 40th anniversary of the accident.

In Brief

• RAAF Lockheed Neptune A89-272 is in for a refurbish at RAAF Townsville. The former patrol bomber suffered serious damage after being battered by Cyclone Yasi last year. The Air Force Heritage Group started the restoration in May and is using pieces of two Neptunes located at Townsville.

Contact Dave by email at [email protected]