Amazing Cross Section

Probably the most interesting, and smallest, is Graham Dorrington’s RMIT Hovera BYT. The aircraft was built at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology as a possible entry into the Go Fly competition to find a personal flying device which was revolutionary in design, was safe, quiet and ultra-compact, and could carry a person a minimum of 20nm without refuelling or recharging. The competition was sponsored by Boeing to the tune of $2 million (A$3.03 million). As it turned out RMIT chose another design, the X-Aero, to enter the competition but it was unplaced in the final. 

The Hovera is basically a single-seat flying platform with two large contra-rotating impellors built into the base which are driven by a 60kw electric motor. It is a development of the 1953 Hiller Pawnee prototypes which were built for the US Navy to explore the ducted fan principle to be used for personal transport for military use in the tactical reconnaissance and transport arena. After three development prototypes of the Pawnee the research was abandoned as it was considered to be too heavy, too slow and too mechanically delicate to be of any real value on the battlefield. With massive technical developments since 1953 we wait to see if the same basic principles are feasible in today’s world. 

Another new type to Australian skies is Gregory McFarlane’s Milholland Double Eagle DEH. Looking like a 1920s design, the aircraft was designed by American Leonard Milholland and is a two-seat development of the Legal Eagle. It is a high-wing single-engine kit-built machine with a welded steel fuselage and wooden wings covered with doped aircraft fabric. It has an open cockpit and a spring steel main undercarriage with a conventional tail wheel. Normally powered by a converted 60hp (45kw) Volkswagen engine, DEH has a Continental O-200 fitted. This 3.3 litre engine is air-cooled, horizontally opposed and provides around 100hp (75kw). 

The Panthera is a sleek looking four-seater from Pipistrel of Slovenia and the first of its type in Australia is now registered BEL. It is a low wing, single-engine, retractable gear, all-composite aircraft powered by a Lycoming IO-520 engine and it features a ballistic parachute system and a Garmin full glass cockpit. Its very aerodynamic lines, heavily tapering rear fuselage and tee-tail give the aircraft a futuristic look and it has a claimed 950nm range and 190kt cruise at 10 gallons/hour (37.8 litres/hour). BEL is painted in a very attractive basic white with gold highlights and has been imported by local Pipistrel agent Michael Coates. Although the aircraft has been sold the owner has agreed for it to be used as a demonstrator for around six months. 

The final two new types are developments of older models and are the latest Embraer 190 and Bombardier Global Express. The Embraer ERJ-190-300STD E3 is the Evolution 3 model of the very popular E-190 which includes uprated and more efficient engines and avionics. Almost 600 E-190s have been built and the type has found favour with many smaller airlines that are looking for an aircraft to service lower demand routes but with amenities and features of larger jets. 

Australian property developer John Gandel’s company Gandel Investments Group has upgraded its Bombardier Global Express to the very latest model which has become TGG the fifth. Three of the previous four TGGs have been Gandel’s Gulfstream G-IV and two Global Express’. Bombardier has now dropped the ‘Express’ title and the latest models are simply known as Globals. The $72.8 million (A$110.5 million) Global 7500 has a 3.43m fuselage stretch, incorporating a four-zone cabin, a new transonic wing, which delayed the launch of the aircraft by about one year after Bombardier decided to redesign it, and two 18,920lbf General Electric Passport jet engines. Bombardier claims that the Global 7500 is the largest, longest range, roomiest and most luxurious purpose-built executive jet ever produced. 

Stuart Lee’s Cessna Bird Dog JGB joins 18 others of the type flying in Australia and a further six in New Zealand with at least another five in Australia either stored or being rebuilt and not yet registered. The Bird Dog is probably the cheapest warbird to obtain, rebuild and operate, being based on the Cessna 170. It is a two-seat, strut-braced high-wing, single-engine aircraft with conventional tail wheel landing gear. Cessna submitted the 305A design to the US Army as an all metal liaison and observation platform to replace the fabric covered Stinson and Piper aircraft that were then in use. The main differences between the 170 and the Bird Dog were the tandem seating, angled side windows and a lower rear fuselage with a larger rear window for greater visibility, and transparent panels in the wing centre section over the cockpit to allow the pilot to look directly overhead. The design was approved and a contract for 418 aircraft was awarded to Cessna with the designation L-19A Bird Dog with the prototype N41694 making its maiden flight on 14 December 1949. Deliveries began during December 1950 and with further contracts a total of 3,431 Bird Dogs were produced by Cessna between 1950 and 1959 with the type also built under licence by Fuji in Japan. 

There have of course been many interesting flights by Bird Dogs including the story of The Republic of Vietnam Air Force Major BuangLy who loaded his wife and five children into a two-seat Bird Dog the day before the fall of Saigon and, after evading enemy ground fire, headed out to sea. With very little fuel left he spotted the US carrier Midway and dropped a note asking that the deck be cleared so that he could land. Without hesitation the Commanding Officer of the Midway ordered $10 million (A$15.2 million) worth of South Vietnamese Bell Iroquois helicopters to be pushed overboard into the South China Sea to enable the Bird Dog to land. 

JGB was built during 1951 as an L-19A Bird Dog and delivered to the US Army with the serial 51- 4717. It later went to the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force with serial number 11014 and later still to the Royal Thai Army where it flew as 4717. It was last reported stored in Thailand during January 2013 before coming to Australia. 

Fifteen aircraft are listed as being exported in the Deletions section with three going across the Tasman to New Zealand, including Cirrus SR22 FER which will replace a Cessna 172 currently operated by TJL Rental at Hamilton. The aircraft will very easily become ZK-FER by simply deleting the VH- as Kiwi aircraft can fly within New Zealand without the ZK- being painted on. Five aircraft have been exported to the USA, Gunn Resources/Rotor Force Australia McDonnell Douglas 520N is now registered N520NY to HAWCS International at Los Angeles, California, and Diamond Eclipses YNA and YNB have become N307TH and N308TH respectively with TVPX Aircraft Solutions of North Salt Lake, Utah. Bristow Helicopters Super Pumas LOF and LOJ are now in Canada along with DH Beaver AAM while Cameron Balloon COW has gone to Mexico and Cessna 172 LZG is now in South Korea flying as HL1292. PBU is the second Bell 206L LongRanger to be completely refurbished and then sold to the Royal Thai Police – this one becoming 2401, and elderly Piper Cherokee MFD is now flying in the UK as G-CLLR with G-Hire of Kidlington, Oxford. 

Unfortunately, after last issue’s listing that recorded no accidents, there are five shown in this issue. PA-32 Cherokee Six AST came to grief at Mabuiag Island, Queensland, during October 2017, JIW suffered airframe damage after control was lost and it entered a steep dive before it recovered and returned to Archerfield in May last year and Cessna 310 JMW was lost when it crashed 40km SSW of Port Macquarie, NSW, during October last year. The 310 was on approach to The Lakes in NSW after a return flight to Toowoomba, Queensland, when one engine stopped and the other lost power. The ATSB attributed the power loss to insufficient fuel or an in-flight fuel management issue. BRM Aero Bristell YVF was damaged at Moorabbin during touch-and-go practice in December last year and Robinson R44 Raven YYF sustained substantial damage at Warwombie Station near Hughenden, Queensland, while taking off for a local flight. The helicopter encountered sink just after take-off and the rotor RPM decayed. The left skid contacted the ground, it spun to the right then the right skid dug in and the aircraft rolled onto its right side. The pilot quickly selected the master switch off before exiting the helicopter uninjured. 

Finally, we find that the RAN Fleet Air Arm Museum’s Sea Fury NVS, Firefly NVU and Westland Scout NVW have all been withdrawn from use. All three aircraft have not flown for some time with the Scout helicopter believed not to have taken to the air since its last, unauthorised, flight and subsequent crash at the Schofields Air Show on 10 November 1985. The three aircraft will remain in the museum but will not fly again.