Warbirds

Meanwhile, at Melbourne’s Moorabbin airport Ashley Briggs, president of the Australian National Aviation Museum, has two P-40 Kittyhawks under rebuild in what is becoming known as the Briggs Ironworks. While not scheduled to fly in the near future the two aircraft will in due course add to the growing number of Kittyhawk fighters flying or flyable around the world. Could it be that in the future there will be more Kittyhawks flying than Mustangs? Given that there were only two Mustangs flying in the Oshkosh daily airshow this year that could well be the case.

There are currently five P-40 Kittyhawks on the Australian register, of which four are flying. They are VH-PFO, a P-40N-5-U with Doug Hamilton of Whorouly, Victoria; VH-HWK, a P-40F with Judy Pay at Tyabb, Victoria; VH-ZOC, a P-40N with Alan Arthur of Albury, NSW; and VH-KTY, a P-40E with Dianne Pay at Scone, NSW.

There is also a project aircraft, VH-AJY, a P-40E registered to Reevers Pastoral of South Australia.

Museum movements

What was the oldest flying Australian glider, Golden Eagle VH-GFC, was struck off the register on April 5 and is now in the hands of the Australian Gliding Museum at Bacchus Marsh, Victoria.

Designed and built by Geoff Richardson the Golden Eagle first flew in September 1937. It was a regular flyer at vintage gliding meets across Australia for many years.

A little up the road in Melbourne we learn that the Australian National Aviation Museum at Moorabbin is planning to put back into the air both its Desoutter II monoplane VH-UPR, and BA Swallow II VH-UUM.

Both machines have been rebuilt over many years by museum life member Nelson Wilson. The Swallow was imported into Australia in 1935. After a number of owners it was donated to the museum in 1967 by then owner Bob Burnett-Reid.

There are just two Swallows remaining in Australia and four more in the UK.

The Desoutter, meanwhile, arrived in Australia in 1930 and was donated to the museum in 1968. It is one of three remaining in the world.

In recent years the museum has gone from strength to strength with an increase in membership and from this an increase in volunteers to help in the work of rebuilding and displaying the museum’s collection of aircraft and artefacts. A part of the charter of the museum is to preserve and display Australian built aircraft. With the arrival of the CAC CA-17 Mustang VH-VID/A68-71, the museum now has at least one of each type built by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation at Melbourne’s Fishermans Bend.

In its latest newsletter the museum advises that already work is progressing on the Mustang with rear fuselage skins found to be in poor condition and so were removed with the intent to replace them.

Across Port Phillip Bay is one of the Melbourne region’s hidden aviation gems, the B-24 being rebuilt at Werribee. Undergoing restoration at the former WW2 Werribee aerodrome in an historic hangar this aircraft shares that hangar with a CAC Boomerang and an Airspeed Oxford that are also being rebuilt, the Boomerang to fly again.

When one puts aside the excitement of actually seeing this big bomber under rebuild it is worth contemplating how it was built. The aircraft, B-24M A72-176, was built by Ford for Consolidated at the Willow Run plant, Michigan. At the peak of construction Ford was completing a B-24 every 63 minutes.

It is simply amazing to realise that in order to complete an aircraft in that time there had to be a continuous supply of the various parts and components from outside contractors. Those contractors supplied metal, radio gear, engines, undercarriages, guns, fittings, rivets, control fittings, nuts and bolts, paint, Perspex plus a thousand other items needed to complete a machine. The failure of one contractor to supply some needed item could have endangered the delivery chain. An amazing industrial achievement.

Finally, across Bass Strait Air Vice-Marshal Peter Scully ret’d has been the driving force behind the revamped museum and library run by the Royal Australian Air Force Association in Hobart. The museum is located on the upper floor of the association’s premises at 61 Davey Street. The museum has collected and put on display all manner of items relating to the RAAF such as medals, uniforms, maps, guns, wireless sets and even sections of aircraft.

The museum is open on Sundays from 10 am to 3 pm or by appointment.

Register news

From New Zealand we learn that DH. 82a Tiger Moth ZK-AIE, c/n 83492, was added to the register on July 5 to the RNZAF to be an historic flying aircraft. The RNZAF also added North American Harvard 2A, 88-9272, to the register as ZK-RNZ on July 11. It is ex NZ1015.

In Australia Boeing A75 Stearman VH-INK, c/n 75-7041, was added to the register on July 21 to PT17 Aviation of Roseberry, NSW.

Tiger Moth VH-AZR, T321, long in the Bange family at Clifton, Queensland has had a change of owner to Karl Schultz of Toowoomba, Queensland on July 12, while Aero L-39C VH-VRO, 834424, has departed the Rolph-Smith warbirds collection for that of The Stick & Rudder Flying Company of Brookfield, Queensland on July 14.

Making a Mercedes

It is often said that German engineering is some of the best in the world. Certainly that is what The Vintage Aviator Ltd (TVAL) has found out in its quest to manufacture and operate the World War 1 Mercedes D. III inline six-cylinder aero engine.

TVAL has manufactured several WW1 aero engines to power its growing collection of replica and reproduction aeroplanes, but building a replica D. III engine was considered a harder task and was put on the back burner for some years.

But with its keen interest in building and operating German types that flew behind the widely-used Mercedes D. III, TVAL has commenced manufacturing that engine model. The 180hp (135kW) engine was a favourite of WW1 German aircraft designers because of its power and reliability. TVAL had obtained two original D. IIIs but only a new-build engine can provide the required reliability for the TVAL fleet – there is no point in building a replica aircraft to have it damaged or destroyed as a result of engine failure.

So how do you make a 1916 aero engine? For TVAL there was more than a tad of detective work as it investigated the materials and methods of manufacturing the major and minor components. Reverse engineering the D. III saw X-ray technology and CAD modelling used, while tooling had to be found, acquired, made or modified in order to make the engine. Then there was the research to obtain the same type of metal used in the original or a satisfactory replacement.

To name but a few major components, TVAL needed to make the crank case, cylinders, crank shaft and cam shaft plus all the accessories. CNC machining was used and then NDT testing of all items produced was undertaken. The history and quality control of all components manufactured had to be tracked.

Having constructed the engine then came 25 hours of running it followed by a strip down and checking the various components. This was followed by a rebuild and a further two hours of running time. As with all newly-built engines it is the wise pilot that stays close to the home base aerodrome, in this case Hood aerodrome at Masterton, New Zealand, until assured of the satisfactory operation of the engine.

One has to admire the skills of the WW1 German aero engine designers in their design and construction of the advanced Mercedes engine. There was a war on and there were all kinds of pressures applied to Mercedes. Problems in obtaining a skilled labour force, problems in obtaining the materials – and the correct materials at that – to build the engine from and the pressure from the military to produce more faster. In its construction of the Mercedes engine TVAL experienced all this save for the fact that there was no war on.

Perhaps TVAL should change its logo of ‘Constructors of Military Aircraft’ to add ‘and Engines’.

Warbirds over Wellcamp

Two years to the day since John Wagner landed the first aircraft at Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport, the airport hosted a fly-in of warbirds in support of what’s believed to be a first for an Australian airport, a multi-disciplinary two-day sporting event – the Colliers International Run, Ride, Race for Research on July 23-24, reports Lenn Bayliss.

Hundreds of cyclists, runners and motorcycling enthusiasts participated in the massive prostate cancer fundraising event. John Wagner, himself a prostate cancer survivor, says he’s thrilled the airport was able to accommodate such a worthwhile event.

Joining TBM Avenger VH-VTB and North American Harvard VH-LNT at Wellcamp were Fighter Pilot Adventure Flights’ Mustang VH-FST and Waco biplane VH-YOW along with Yak-52 VH-YIK, Nanchang CJ-6A VH-NNH and the only A model Trojan in Australia, T-28A Trojan VH-VBT.

There are not many jet RPT airports in Australia where a group of warbirds occupy Bay 3, normally occupied by a QantasLink Q400! After an extensive rebuild by Aerotec in Toowoomba, Avenger VH-VTB has again taken to the air and was one of the highlights of the fly-in. An amazing career has seen this Avenger flown by the United States Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy before serving in Canada as a firebomber. At the end of its firebombing career it flew as a warbird in the United States before joining the Australian register.

The Avenger was joined by Mustang VH-FST Snooks 6th. VH-FST is now based with Fighter Pilot Adventure Flights at Archerfield, Brisbane.

All concerned are looking forward to the fly-in becoming an annual event.

In brief

C-47 VH-XUX Buzz Buggy was due to depart for its new home with Flying Tigers museum at Guilin, China in mid to late August. The flight route planned is basically from Bathurst to Longreach, Darwin, Bali, Mandalay, Kunming and on to the destination, Guilin. The trip was expected to take some 43 hours and cover 5,828nm.

Contact Dave by email: [email protected]