Warbirds

Neptune News

From Perth in Western Australia comes the news that the Lockheed SP-2H Neptune imported by AeroCorp Australia has still not been used by local fire fighting organisations to fight bushfires. The Neptune, N54317, was imported several years ago and after arrival in Perth was extensively reworked for firefighting duties. Some $600,000 was spent on the machine to bring it up to fire bombing standards. The Managing Director of AeroCorp, Mr Theo Valerio, has stated that while the aircraft is effectively ready to go to work the WA Bushfires Board and Department of Conservation and Land Management has rejected the aircraft on the basis of its operational cost. AeroCorp are looking at an annual cost of $420,000 to keep the machine on standby while the government bodies have indicated that they think several crop duster fire bombers can be used for less than $200,000 per annum. N54317 was purchased in the USA for $175,000. It had seen active service as an intel aircraft in the Vietnam conflict. AeroCorp Australias’ managing director, Mr Theo Valerio, has previously been involved with the aviation industry when he was involved with Bloodstock Air Services of Perth that used Boeing 727-100, VH-LAP, for racehorse transport in the early eighties. The machine was later sold to Ansett.

Strikemaster Incident

BAC 167 Strikemaster Mk.84, VH-AKY, sustained minor damage when it had a gear up incident on January 26 while landing at Bankstown, NSW. The two seat jet was reported to have returned from a flight to Nowra when it had an electrical problem. The gear was lowered but collapsed during the landing roll. There were no injuries to the two occupants. VH-AKY was previously with the Singapore Air Force as serial number 315 and was the first of the Strikemasters/Jet Provosts in Australia to be listed on the civil register.

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