Warbirds

Jerry Yeagan is a businessman operating at Virginia Beach, Virginia. He has run four vocational trade schools associated with his aviation enterprises in Virginia and the Military Aviation Museum in Pungo, near Virginia Beach.

Yeagan has made the simple statement about the sell-off of his collection with the words “I cannot afford it anymore”, adding “He can no longer afford to subsidise the operations of the airplanes”. The museum has been holding two big flight events each year in addition to being open for inspection.

The Mosquito that has only been in the US for a few months is reported to have been or is near to being sold.

Yeagan has a reputation for faithful restoration of First and Second World war aircraft that incorporate modern technology to make them safer and more reliable than when new. The collection comprises over 100 aircraft. A long list breaks them down into projects (40), WW2 (44) and WW1 replica (23).

The Mosquito has an Australian connection in that its two engines were located in Australia. After purchase they were sent to the US for overhaul and then shipped to New Zealand for installation in the wooden fighter-bomber.

The projects list of aircraft is also of interest to Australia. It includes a Kawasaki Ki-61. This is thought to be at Wangaratta. There is a C-C built Sabre jet fighter with US registration N5686 currently in New Zealand. It also lists a Douglas A-20, Bell P-39 Airacobra and a Lockheed P-38. These are thought to also be at Wangaratta, together with a Vought Kingfisher and two Vultee Vengence dive-bombers. The Kingfisher is probably the aircraft from WA now at Wangaratta. The remains of the two Vultee Vengence aircraft may also have come from WA. The only complete Vultee Vengence in the world is the aircraft in the Camden Aviation Museum.

It is unfortunate to record the on-going demise of the Yeagan collection, huge that it is. Jerry has invested a simply massive amount of his money into the purchase, rebuild, operation and display of a large number of historic airframes, airframes that might otherwise have ended in the melting pot or on the scrap heap had he not put up his hand to save them.

The demise of the collection and its rebuild projects will have long-lasting effects through the warbird industry.

Workshops worldwide will have uncompleted projects, pilots and engineers will be out of a job and the museum will be closed. A lot of people and places will feel the effect of the sale of the Yeagan collection.

On the other hand, the sale of projects or even flyable aircraft will mean those aircraft will go to other collectors to hopefully display and fly, and the projects go to new owners who one can hope will complete the rebuilds.

HISTORIC DH60 TO RAAF MUSEUM

A DH60M Gipsy Moth has recently been acquired by the RAAF Museum at Point Cook. A Gipsy Moth with a lifetime of history behind it!

The biplane, VH-UQV, c/n 783 was originally shipped to Canada as a floatplane. There it was registered CF-ADC on May 14 1929. In 1932 it was returned to the UK where it became a landplane and flown to Australia by owner Jacques Herbert in December 1932. A few days after it arrived it was badly damaged after it collided with a flock of goats when landing at Cloncurry!

Rebuilt by QANTAS, it was then used for charter by new owners Messer’s Moody & Nantes. In December 1934 it was bought by famed Australian and NT flying doctor, Clyde Fenton, following the demise of his earlier DH-60M, VH-UOI. It was then used by Dr Fenton in support of his flying medical services in the NT.

During the war the aircraft was stored due to a rebuild that never happened. Following the war and a rebuild it had a number of owners. In the 1980s it was scheduled to be exported to the Strathallan Collection in the UK, but this was thwarted and the machine remained in Australia. In October 1989 it crashed at Rutherford after colliding with a power line.

In damaged condition it changed ownership to Ken Ruff of Melbourne. A slow rebuild began but was still underway when Ken passed away recently. The aircraft passed to the RAAF Museum at Point Cook where it is reported as comprising the fuselage and one wing. It will be a long-term rebuild.

Director of the RAAF Museum David Gardner, commented that while VH-UQV had not actually been operated by the RAAF it was of the marque operated by the RAAF and as DH60 Moths were not handed to the museum every day it was an important addition to the museum collection. The air force operated some 122 of the type in various sub models from 1926 to 1946.

FLEET AIR ARM MUSEUM EXPANSION AND HARS

The Royal Australian Navy’s Fleet Air Arm Museum at HMAS Albatross, Nowra, is to have an expanded facility.

Old service yard buildings and plant adjacent to the existing museum and no longer required have been demolished and the area cleared.

The site is the intended location for a hangar to house the Navy Heritage Flight aircraft. A Defence spokesman advised that the aircraft may be loaned to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) if a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) can be agreed.

In 2009 the RAN and HARS entered into a partnership to assess the viability of HARS maintaining and operating selected loaned Navy heritage Flight aircraft under a MoA. The new MoA is in negotiation and the partnership will only proceed if the Navy and HARS agree to the terms.

If this agreement goes ahead it can only be good for both the Navy and HARS. The Navy will have a guaranteed facility for the Heritage Flight aircraft which, located next to the museum, will become an added attraction for visitors. The expansion and upgrading of the Fleet Air Arm museum will also become an interest point for taxpayers to some of the Navy’s history and also to become a recruiting focal point. HARS, with its existing extensive collection, will also have the proven management skills to oversee the heritage collection.

REGISTER NEWS

From Australia comes news that Auster J1N Alpha, VH-UXB, c/n 1857, was added to the register on June 30. This aircraft was built in 1945 and spent many years as UK registered G-AGVF. It is reported as having been ‘sold in Australia’ in 1978. It has taken just a few years to get on the register. Howard Jones of Langford, WA in the listed owner.

Another Ryan is inbound to Australia. The aircraft, a model Ryan STM-1, is said to have been built in 1938 as an export model for the Guatemalan Air Force. All were fitted with or retrofitted with a pair of 7mm machine guns mounted above the upper wing surface just outboard of the undercarriage. This Ryan, c/n 302, is one of a group, c/n’s 300 to 305, that joined an earlier group of Ryan STM-1s, c/n 192 to 197 that had earlier also gone to Guatemala. It has a total time of some 800 hours. The STM-1 is powered by a Menasco C4S Pirate four-cylinder engine of 111 kW (150 hp). The RAAF Ryan model was the ex-Netherlands East Indies Air Force model STM-2.

Most of the Guatemalan Ryans returned to the US in 1958. C/n 302 was initially registered as N11D with Bill Dodd of Illinois. It later became N302D and was last with James Rollison of Vacaville, California and was struck off the US register on June 13. It was on the water being shipped to Australia in the second week of July. The new Ryan is for well-known Gippsland warbird owner Jeff Trappett.

MILES GEMINI TO AUSTRALIA

The big interest for the month is that a Miles M.65 Gemini 1A is being imported to Australia. The aircraft, currently registered SE-BMG, is being shipped from Sweden where it has been based near Stockholm since 2008.

Built in 1947 the M.65 Gemini 1A, c/n 6285, first flew on March 27 1947. Of all-wood construction, it is powered by two Blackburn Cirrus Minor 2 engines of 74 kW (100 hp each). The initial registration was the British marking of G-AISD. In 1947 well-known Spitfire pilot Alex Henshaw took the aircraft on a sales tour through Africa where it became VP-KDH in Kenya. There the aircraft was operated for a number of years until it had a gear-up landing in 1952 and was returned to the UK for repair work. In 1953 it became OO-PRD in Belgium. In later years the aircraft was rebuilt to ensure safety with the wooden structure and took to the air again in 1987. It then went to Sweden.

Recently the machine was placed on the market with a price of US$25,900 with a total flight time of some 2,300 hours.

The new owner is reported as a Melbourne-based pilot who already has an interest in antique aircraft with several Auster aircraft.

MUSEUM JOTTINGS

The Australian National Aviation Museum, better known as the Moorabbin Air Museum, took delivery of the cockpit capsule/module of an F-111C, reported as from A8-131, on Friday June 28. Proving the drawing power of the F-111 the museum saw a large increase in visitors over the next few days.

Do you know of any Martin PBM Mariner relics? Steve Bath of the Martin Seaplanes Historical Research Group of Austin, Texas is seeking knowledge of any Martin Mariner flying boat components remaining in Australia. The RAAF had 12 PBM-3R transports in service between 1943 and 1945. There are some components still in existence. At Bull Creek RAAF Association, WA, there is a nose section converted into a caravan. At Ballarat airport, Vic. the museum there also has a cockpit converted into a caravan. At Goolwa airfield, SA a rear fuselage is reported to exist. At Moorabbin airport the Australian National Aviation Museum is said to have the tail and elevators of a Mariner.

One Mariner survives at the Pima Air & Space Museum at Tucson, Arizona.

Steve Bath can be contacted at [email protected]

IN BRIEF

● The Friends of the RAAF Museum will present the annual George Merz Memorial Lecture at the Officers Mess Ante Room RAAF Base Laverton, Melbourne on September 20 from 1930 pm. Entry is free but space in limited and bookings essential. To book, email [email protected]. The subject of this year’s lecture is the Dassult Mirage and the keynote speaker is Air Vice Marshall Mel Hopfield, a former Mirage pilot and currently Air Commander Australia. The Mirage III was in RAAF service between 1964 and 1988.

● Pioneer aviator, Laurence (Laurie) Crowley, passed away on June 13 at Wagga Wagga, NSW. He was aged 93. Crowley was a founder of Crowley & Stockden Airways Pty Ltd, at Lae, PNG, in June 1949. This later became Crowley Airways Pty. Ltd. The firm operated a number of light aircraft including helicopters bwteen the 1950s and 1970s. He later went on to found Megapode Airways at Honiara in the Solomon Islands. On retirement he ran an automotive maintenance business at Junee, NSW. It was named… Crowley Airways Pty. Ltd!

● Country airshows can be good shows. Gunnedah, NSW was the site for an airshow and fly-in on June 16. Perhaps it should have been named the Russian Airshow given the number of Russian types present. The Russian Roulettes Aerobatic Team were present with Yak-52s VH-VHV, -YYK and Nanchang CJ-6A VH-CPX and –CJX. Aero L-39C Albatross VH-KEE was doing adventure flights as was Yak-52 VH-YRO. Also present was Yak-52 VH-VMI and -YRO.

Yak-18 cabin tourers VH-ZEX and –YBG brought up the Ruski numbers. Warbirds Wirraway VH-WWY TBM Avenger VH-MML and Harvard T-6 VH-PEM attended as did Piper J3 24-5235 and Cessna 195 VH-KXR. The odd spot was Cessna U206F amphib VH-FKS – very far inland – which is being used as a trainer for pilots of local ‘Fire Boss’ Air Tractor water bombers.

Contact Dave by email at [email protected]