Powered by MOMENTUM MEDIA
australian aviation logo

HARS Museum to display rival Cold War-era fighters

written by Adam Thorn | July 9, 2020

A3-2 Mirage III of ARDU, 3/4R view of A/C inverted over a hill near Woomera, A/C fitted with pylon & 6 MK82 500lb bombs. A/C file 3-3-392

HARS Aviation Museum has painstakingly reassembled a Cold-War era Soviet MiG-21, which it will display this weekend (10-12 July) at Shellharbour Regional Airport.

The aircraft will be displayed alongside its rival Mirage supersonic jet fighter 111O that served with the RAAF from 1966 to 1987, as well as two Fokker Friendship aircraft.

The displays will be part of the museum’s Tarmac Days display and comes shortly after the centre was able to open back up again after coronavirus restrictions were lifted.

Volunteers only recently finished restoring the MiG-21 back to its original condition and it comes complete with Indian Air Force colours where it served.

As A3-42, the Mirage 111O was one of the 100 single-seat and 16 dual-seat versions acquired by Australia as a replacement for the Sabre jet fighter.

==
==

It was seen as a formidable opponent to the MiG-21 and could reach speeds of up to Mach 2.

The Historical Aircraft Restoration Society’s premises are located at Shellharbour Regional Airport (YSHL), Albion Park, which is an hour by road south of Sydney.

Also on display will be two Fokker Friendship F-27 airliner that will be displayed together outside Hangar 1.

More than 80 Fokker Friendships served across Australia from 1959, replacing the DC-3 and Convair that provided vital links to the major cities.

The pair on display were donated to the museum the New Zealand Post so they could be kept operational.

You need to be a member to post comments. Become a member today!

Comment (1)

  • boleropilot

    says:

    Fabulous photo of a Mirage doing an inverted pull down at low level. For those not in the know, the object is to maintain positive G while passing over high ground – the pilot pulls up on approaching the high ground, rolls inverted, flies up the hill inverted, then pulls back on the stick to fly inverted down the opposite side of the hill. Somewhere during the descent toward the low ground on the other side, the pilot rolls the aircraft upright, then pulls up (with positive G) to continue the flight at low level. Trying to achieve this maneuver on my flight simulator took me a very long time….

    If I remember correctly, this Mirage was photographed performing this maneuver and that photo then graced the cover of Australian Aviation magazine. If by chance there are hi-res copies of those photos I would be interested in purchasing one for the wall of my study.

    BP

Comments are closed.

You don't have credit card details available. You will be redirected to update payment method page. Click OK to continue.