Warbirds

After several owners and operators in the US, the aircraft moved over the border to Canada where it was given the marking C-FDNL with the Russell Aviation Group. Sold by Platinum Fighter Sales, the aircraft is being shipped Down Under.

While the name of the owner is unknown as yet, he is reported to be a non-flyer. It is understood that the aircraft will go to Scone, NSW for assembly and any maintenance that might be required. Ross Pay at Scone has a Mustang flying and another under rebuild, so the Hurricane will be in good hands.

Aviation enthusiasts will look forward to seeing a Hawker Hurricane in Australia. The last Hurricane to fly here was a WW2 machine, V7476. Destined to become A60-1, it never took up the marking. After the war, the aircraft was sold off and broken up in Victoria.

And a Yak-3U also for Australia

From WA comes news that a Yak-3U is being reassembled at Aero Jack’s at Jandakot. The aircraft was built by the Avione Aircraft factory in Romania. It is reported to be based on a Yak 11 airframe but has an American Pratt & Whitney R-2000 radial engine rather than the Allison V-12 engine that has powered most modern Yak-3 series aircraft.

The aircraft was imported from the USA, where it held the registration N46463. At Reno, it carried the race number 33 and the name Steadfast.

The Yak arrived at Aero Jack’s maintenance facility on November 2 and as of mid-December was stillbeing reassembled. The machine will be registered as VH-YOV to Patrick Cornwell’s Eastern Fighters operation. The two-seat dual-control machine was flown by Patrick before leaving the US. He has previously flown T-6 Texan and P-51 Mustang aircraft.

The arrival of the Yak has caused quite a stir in WA and we look forward to seeing it in the air. The aircraft is expected to visit the eastern states in due course.

Wirraway archeology

From western Victoria comes the strange tale of a long-lost Wirraway being recovered from a lake.

Wirraway A20-714 was delivered to the RAAF in July 1945. In October 1950, while on a low-level navigation, the aircraft was being flown by New Zealander Vance Drummond. It touched the water and subsequently was ditched some 1,000 metres off the western shore of Lake Corangamite. Drummond survived the ditching and was subsequently rescued by a local in a boat. The Wirraway was eventually written off from the RAAF inventory.

Drummond went on to become a highly decorated RAAF pilot, serving in Malaya and Vietnam. In 1977, he disappeared off the coast of NSW while flying a Mirage fighter. Neither the aircraft nor the pilot were recovered.

Local agricultural pilot Gordon Wilson spotted the partly submerged Wirraway aircraft in 2005, assisted by an abnormal drop in the level of the lake. Today about a third of the aircraft is exposed above the waterline.

Ocean Grove resident Rodney Knights has been granted approval by Heritage Victoria and the RAAF to salvage the aircraft. Knights has said that after recovery and stabilisation the aircraft willeventually go on public display.

The plan is to raise the aircraft and then transport it to the shore. There it will be placed in a water tank to allow stabilisation as the water is progressively changed.

A passing of airmen

The past few weeks have seen the passing of a few well-known names from the pages of the old aeroplane movement.

Edward ‘Ted’ Sly DFC, MID and the rare Desert Star, passed away on November 30 aged 95. Ted was a RAAF WW2 pilot. He trained in Rhodesia, and later flew Kittyhawks and over 600 hours in Spitfires. In all, he flew in four campaigns. In more recent years Ted was a regular at the Temora Aviation Museum. There he was reunited with Kittyhawks and Spitfires, and signed copies of his book The Luck of the Draw, which recounts his wartime experiences.

A Temora Aviation Museum Spitfire was due to fly over a Darling Point funeral service on December 10 in memory of the Spitfires that Ted flew in combat and as a tribute from the museum that he devoted so much time to.

Colonel LK ‘Keith’ Hatfield (Retd) DFC AM (US) passed away on November 8 aged 95. Keith was flying civil aircraft before WW2. During the war he served in the Army in New Guinea and Burma. While flying as an observer in a T-6 in the Korean War, his aircraft was shot down and he was forced to bail out.

After retiring from the Army, Keith formed Groupair and operated Casey Airfield at Berwick on the southeast side of Melbourne from 1968 to 1994. He also owned a number of aircraft, including a DH. 85 Leopard Moth and a Miles Falcon.

Sydney (Sid) James Beck, late of Mareeba, passed away on December 4 aged 75. Sid was the proprietor of the Beck Military Museum at Mareeba, where his collection of aircraft and rare military vehicles was on display under a WW2 wooden igloo hangar. Sid’s collection was both unusual and very interesting. It included a Bell P-39 that force-landed on Cape York during WW2.

Iraqi MiG-25 Foxbat

When Australian Special Forces attacked Al Asad, an Iraqi air force base some 200km northwest of Baghdad on April 16 2003, they did not expect to find IAF MiG-25 Foxbat aircraft buried in the sand dunes.

At the time, it was proposed that one of the aircraft be dug out and transported to Australia for the Australian War Memorial. But later it was decided that the aircraft should not be treated as a souvenir.

Now it can be revealed that American forces considered the buried aircraft to be of value because of their equipment. As a result, two buried MiG-25s were dug out of the sand at Al Taqqadum airbase and transported to the US, their wings having been removed and not found. After technical examination, one MiG was donated to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The MiG‑25RB, serial 25105, is now in the museum’s restoration facility. The museum is currently attempting to locate a set of wings to complete the aircraft for display.

Mallacoota remembers

In the far east of Victoria lies Mallacoota airport, which was built during WW2 as a landing ground for RAAF anti-submarine aircraft. The base was also considered strategically important due to its proximity to nearby Gabo Island, where a RAAFradar station was established. During the war, no less than 22 ships were sunk by Japanese submarines off the southeastern coast of Australia. The sparsely populated East Gippsland region with its long coastline was considered vulnerable to attack.

During the war, the Mallacoota landing ground, as it was called, had three runways with directions 07/25, 36/18 and 11/29. These days, runway 11/29 is no longer in service. Beaufort and Avro Anson aircraft operated from Mallacoota and a seaplane depot was located on the lake. Photos show at least three Walrus aircraft moored in a row, including A2-22. Vought Kingfisher floatplanes were also used there.

Located to the west of the town of Mallacoota, the landing ground housed a RAAF contingent of about 60 men. Today, little remains of the RAAF encampment, except for the WW2 operations bunker wherea museum has been established. The concrete bunker was a major advanced operations base used by the RAAF for communications. It was a high-security installation forming an important link in a chain of Defence bases located around the Australian coastline. The bunker was the headquarters of RAAF coastal intelligence activity in the region.

Almost all traces of the RAAF WW2 encampment are gone. Tree growth has covered over the camp site, but if one looks hard enough the concrete base of the single Bellman hangar can still be seen, as well as the two dispersal bays. A memorial plaque is located near the recently constructed terminal building.

In recent years, the former communications bunker has been turned into a museum by the Mallacoota RSL and the Mallacoota Historical Society. Open everyTuesday from 9. 30am to noon, the museum contains an interesting collection of artifacts and photos showing what the base and its wartime operations were all about.

In brief

A Chinese aviation delegation visited the Australian National Aviation Museum (the Moorabbin Air Museum) on November 21. Although the Chinese have been purchasing US aviation firms in recent years, there was no suggestion that the delegation made an offer for the museum and its collection.