Table of contents for May - June - July 2016 in Flightpath

In April it was announced the Classic Jets Fighter Museum (CJFM) will close its doors and place all its assets up for sale. Founding Director Bob Jarrett, when commenting on the closure, said, “After twenty years of operation, it has been very difficult to arrive at the decision to close. However, family health issues mean that I cannot continue to keep the museum going.” CJFM has been operating from two hangars at Parafield Airport, South Australia, since 1996. “I initially started in Hangar 52, building up the museum and aircraft three years before I opened the doors,” said Bob. Hangar 52, the display hangar, and its contents will be sold, but the maintenance hangar, and the Corsair under restoration there, will be retained. The museum’s rare ‘Birdcage’ Vought F4U-1 Corsair…

A Victorian workshop, run by a father and son team, is making significant progress with its restoration of a 1939 Percival Proctor. Last flown in 1970, P6187, a Mk.I, served with the RAF until 1945, arrived in Australia in 1956 and was registered VH-DUL. Paul and Liz Gliddon, from Western Australia, bought the aircraft in 2012 from Maurice Rolfe, who had acquired it in 1977, and contracted Latrobe Valley Airframes and Welding Pty Ltd to return the Proctor to flight. Brian and Damien Turner began the restoration at Latrobe Regional Airport in 2013. In late February the starboard wing was removed from its jig and fitted to the fuselage. “We have been able to use eighty percent of the original structure”, said Brian. “Credit to Maurice for storing it so…

A former RAAF Canberra Mk.21 trainer, A84-203, was recently dismantled and moved from RAAF Amberley, Queensland, to Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome Heritage Aviation Museum in northern New South Wales. The aircraft was gifted to the museum by the RAAF. It was one of three aircraft put up for tender and gifted to Australian historical organisations in August 2015 (Canberra A84-226 to Moorabbin’s ANAM, see page 5, and Lockheed Neptune A89-272 to HARS). The Canberra was moved after a difficult but rewarding operation by the dedicated Evans Head crew and will be displayed adjacent to the museum’s F-111 A8-147 as part of a growing collection of retired RAAF and other military aircraft. The engines were removed from the aircraft and it was dismantled into tail, fuselage and wing assemblies. Driving rain…

The restoration of a rare surviving example of one of the great record-breaking aircraft, the Lockheed Vega, has recently been completed. Built as one of five for the Shell Oil Company in 1933, NC13705 was regularly flown by Jimmy Doolittle in his capacity as manager of the company’s aviation department. The Vega was a fast, rugged aircraft designed by John Northrop and Gerard Vultee as a small airliner initially capable of carrying four passengers. It proved too small for this type of work but its wooden monocoque fuselage and cantilever wing presented such a streamlined appearance and performance that it gained favour with private flyers and attracted those seeking to break speed and distance records. The ‘Shell Vega’ (no. 203) is one of only seven built as a model 5C.…

Over the coming months the RAF Museum’s conservation department will be conducting an in-depth survey of the airframes within the collection. Work has already started within the Battle of Britain display hall in its London headquarters at Hendon, London. Very few of the airframes within the hall have ever been fully restored, most were conserved and only repainted prior to being placed on display in 1978, and so they have been largely untouched over the last 38 years. In a most welcome, and somewhat surprising move, the Battle of Britain Hall will remain open whilst this survey work is undertaken. This will allow the unique opportunity for everyone to see under the cowlings and behind the panels as the aircraft are dismantled prior to being moved. It is not exactly…

In May 2002, the FAA Fokker F.VIIb/3m ‘Southern Cross II’ was seriously damaged when making an emergency landing at Para-field Airport, South Australia. The newly-repaired wing was on display at the 2016 Wings over Illawarra airshow and it is clear the aircraft is progressing well towards its return to flight. The failure of the starboard oleo unit at Parafield resulted in the wheel hanging below the fuselage suspended by its drag and undercarriage struts. The landing broke off a 3.2 metre section of the right wing. The undercarriage and associated lower longeron were also affected as were the centre and starboard engines. Following lengthy negotiations, the ownership of the aircraft was transferred to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) and transported by road to the HARS base at Illawarra Regional…

Dear Mr Fox, loved the recent article on Victorian Interstate Airways. In a perverse kind of way, I was ‘manufactured’ via that establishment because that’s where, in 1944, my Dad, Ernie, met my Mum, Florence, in the staff canteen. They married in March 1945. Mum was one of the workers repairing/ rebuilding Avro Ansons and Dad was an engineer in what was then a protected occupation. Although I did not come along until 1947, I can still hear him talk about “Mr Roberts” and some of the other leading personalities of the era and while my memory of those years is getting vague, there’s a rough chance my Mum knew Reg Ansett. That meeting at VIA, the subsequent marriage, the arrival of my brother Ron in 1952, and settling into…

Dear Editor, I have reread your Flightpath Vol. 27, No. 1 issue with quite some interest as, in a way, it coincides with some things that my Dad told me many years ago. My Dad flew in the Black Cats out of Cairns as a flight engineer. A friend of his was (as best I can recall) a Colin Mahoney. I think Colin was a pilot himself and had some rank but I don’t recall just what it was – Squadron Leader perhaps? He was also a very practical man and accomplished with his hands. During and following the war our family lived at Evans Head. I recall that on several occasions Colin and his wife, Joy, called in to visit Mum and Dad. At the time they were travelling…

While much has been written about the exploits of Australians and RAAF squadrons in RAF Bomber Command and their famous aircraft the Lancaster and the Halifax, virtually nothing has appeared on the aircraft type, role and operations of the RAAF’s little known bomber the Martin Baltimore. This then is the story of that remarkable light bomber aircraft. It was flown by two RAAF squadrons in the Mediterranean Theatre and Italy in the reconnaissance, bombing and maritime strike role. Here Mark Lax describes the aircraft while in part two, he will cover the story of 454 and 459 RAAF squadrons together with the other non-RAAF Baltimore units. By the late thirties, developments in aircraft design and engine power and reliability meant aircraft manufacturers, particularly in the US, scrambled to offer their…

In 1946 when the Federal government decided that Melbourne needed a second aerodrome to separate the non-radio equipped Tiger Moths from the DC-3s, an area of 640 acres, now known as Moorabbin Airport, was selected. The land for the proposed aerodrome was compulsorily acquired, much of which had been market gardens and grazing areas. Raymond Follett (my father) owned thirty acres on Lower Dandenong Road, on the southern boundary of the proposed aerodrome. Twenty one acres of the thirty were acquired at the offered price of £70 per acre. A three year legal battle ended up with a settlement of £140 per acre. My first aviation experience, in 1947 at the age of three, was being frightened by the appearance of a flying tadpole making a low pass over the…

The Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk family have always had a mixed reputation as warplanes. Unarguably outclassed in many arenas it faced combat, it was usually the best fighter the Allied air forces had available at the time, and there is no question it held the line against the Axis powers until better aircraft and greater numbers came to the Allies' advantage. (While the correct name for marks and models of the family varied depending on user and version, we have used the general heading of the US designation ‘P-40’ and the British Commonwealth name ‘Kittyhawk’ to cover all, including earlier models, Tomahawks and Warhawks.) Never as popular a warbird as the Mustang in the USA or the Spitfire in the UK, the P-40 was always preserved and operated in smaller numbers…

Building on a solid reputation of previous great airshows, Tyabb’s 2016 event ‘Winged Warriors’ on Sunday, 13 March 2016, achieved new heights. While the unseasonal weather saw a low cloud base affect some acts, all of the scheduled displays performed. More than 10,000 spectators packed the small airfield on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, and enjoyed Tyabb’s advantage of having patrons close to the action. Display aircraft came from across southern and eastern Australia and were well received by the appreciative crowd. With the large collection of privately owned historic and vintage aircraft at home on the field, the organisers, the Peninsula Aero Club, have the distinct advantage of being able to draw on a wealth of exotic aircraft. Airshow director Judy Pay contributed many aircraft from her Old Aeroplane Company…

The Australian National Aviation Museum (ANAM) Moorabbin, Victoria, has moved up a couple of gears over the last few months. The first major display in over twenty years was finally launched in February and will run until March 2017. This new W.W.I Gallery, entitled ‘Australians in the Skies’ features stories on the lives of four of Australia’s most notable aviators from the Great War (of whom three were Victorians), along with the amazing story of the German raider SMS Wolf which menaced our shores during that time. Artefacts on display include the newly overhauled locally made Kelly and Lewis V8 aero engine; the Fokker DR.1 fuel tank, possibly from Manfred von Richthofen's, (the ‘Red Baron’s) aircraft; the BE-2a wings, and a number of smaller artefacts from pilots, soldiers and even…

Chris Godfrey’s T-28D Trojan (VHPFM) has flown for the first time since he acquired it in 2014. The Trojan (serial 51-3588) was originally built as a T-28A before being converted to a D-model intended for Counter Insurgency work. It saw combat in South-East Asia, lastly with the Royal Lao Air Force (RLAF), and was one of the batch of former RLAF Trojans brought to Australia by the late Col Pay and Noel Vinson in the late 1980s. The post-maintenance flight from Jandakot, Western Australia, was on 25 March and once several minor snags are dealt with, Chris will fly the aircraft to Victoria where it will be based. He intends to keep it in its current Vietnam War USAF scheme and will no doubt enjoy flying the aircraft in his…

Six former RAAF DHC-4 Caribous that were in storage for almost seven years have been allocated to several aviation and military museums around Australia. These aircraft were originally part of an incomplete disposal process conducted in September 2011. A new process was commenced in November 2015 with the Commonwealth expressly stating the aircraft were to be “for the purpose of static display only”. This new approach to Australian historical organisations was seen as a very positive step in ensuring these aircraft are preserved rather than scrapped or sold overseas. It is believed this approach will be applied to future disposals of other types. Following the release of the Expressions of Interest process, inspection days were held at Oakey and Brisbane International Airport and responses submitted on 27 January. As far…

The Swiss association ‘Freunde des Fieseler Storch’ (Friends of the Fieseler Storch) is currently bringing one of Europe’s most ambitious classic aviation projects to life. In November 2015, Storch ‘A-97’ was removed from the Verkehrshaus der Schweiz (Museum of Transport) in Lucerne where it had been displayed for decades. It was then sent to Poland for restoration to airworthiness. This aircraft represents the birth of Swiss air rescue as, in November 1946, it and another Storch rescued the twelve souls on board a USAAF Douglas C-53 that crashed on Gauli glacier at 3,000 metres altitude. The two aircraft, equipped with skis, landed on the glacier and took off with two passengers at a time. A Polish company, Aero Kros, is restoring more or less a complete Storch squadron for the…

New Zealand’s well-known PBY-5A Catalina, ZK-PBY, has made a triumphant return to the airshow scene after an absence of almost five years. Its appearance at Wanaka marks the end of a four-year refurbishment, and a mighty fundraising effort. The Catalina was grounded in 2011 when it became evident several wing structures required overhaul. Wing sections required re-skinning, some of the trailing edge had to be rebuilt, and both floats with their attachment points were removed for remedial work. With the aircraft out of the air for so long, the opportunity was taken to give it a thorough going over. Surface corrosion was removed from the entire airframe and engineering work was performed on the pylon, fuselage and tail. The fuselage to wing bracing struts were removed and inspected, a challenge…

Douglas DC-3 VH-CWS has been acquired by a military museum in South Korea. It was disassembled and placed on board a ship berthed at Port Kembla in late January. Built as a C-47A (42-23424) in 1943, it served with the RAAF’s 34 and 36 Squadrons before being sold to Qantas in April 1946. From then until 2006, it flew with a variety of operators and even saw service in New Zealand as ZK-AMS. Classic Wings, a Western Australian charter and scenic flight operator, bought the aircraft in March 2006 and flew several services before the Douglas was repossessed in January 2009. It returned to the eastern states six months later, and was sold at auction in July, only to return to Western Australia to be operated by Peter Christoudias who…

Dear Editor of Flightpath, I recently purchased a copy of Flightpath, Volume 27 Number 3. I noticed two examples of misnaming of the Bf 109 series aircraft, in two different stories in the one issue. The first example, in News: Collings fleet expands, from Andy Wright. The second was a feature story by Gary Brown: Connie’s Luftwaffe. Unless someone is referring specifically to a Swiss Me 109 (a correct designation), there is simply no excuse for using this terminology. Such lazy writing, and lack of proofreading these stories, reflects poorly on an otherwise good magazine. Surely both these writers are aware they should be using the correct Luftwaffe designation of Bf 109. It is not mere pedantry to demand, and expect, better of Flightpath. Regards, J_ _ _ F___ The…

When the green Japanese bomber ditched into the moderate, mid-morning swell of New Guinea’s Huon Gulf, the tail broke off cleanly, a commonplace occurrence under such circumstances for G4M1 ‘Betty’ bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The six crew, one of whom was badly wounded with two bullet wounds to the stomach, then sprawled across the bomber’s expansive wing. Several busied themselves preparing the red life raft that would eventually carry them to safety. Via a subsequent Japanese intelligence report, drafted by the Imperial Army unit that eventually received the crew, we are privy to the crew’s misadventure. We are also able to marry relevant Allied pilot’s reports with the incident. From these we can accurately assemble both sides of the story to account for the crew’s extraordinary eleven-day ordeal.…

The history of the combat veteran P-40N-5, 42-104986, which served with the USAAF’s 8th Fighter Squadron (FS), one of the 49th Fighter Group's three squadrons, is hard to pinpoint. This model P-40 first appeared in the Fifth Air Force’s inventory in New Guinea in July 1943. They were operated by several units and were transferred frequently between these for maintenance purposes and when squadrons changed type. Even pilots from the 312th Bombardment Group (BG) flew them at Gusap in January/February 1944 while waiting to convert to the Douglas A-20G. When the 8th FS first received the P-40N-5 at Dobodura in July 1943, they painted each aircraft’s spinner yellow. A narrow black band was sometimes applied to the middle of the spinner. While the N-model Warhawks were welcome and offered slightly…

Several myths of aerial combat endure unquestioned to this day. Reference to official records of the era can result in an unpleasant surprise when the truth is actually far different. Victory claims in air combat are often exaggerated and sometimes to the extreme. Benefit of the doubt can be given in situations where records do not align or where there are gaps in the data. On the other hand, occasionally a claim appears so glaring that it invites further query as to how, and why, it was perpetrated in the first place. Often there is no one answer, for the myth has acquired a life of its own due to its size and impact, particularly if it was officially sanctioned. The achievement of Japanese pilot Sergeant-Major Satoru Anabuki in allegedly…

It is not often that one has the opportunity to catch up with the Texas Flying Legends Museum (TFLM) at their Houston base as, during the display season, they are always touring the country participating in air displays and commemorative events. This flying museum, which consists of airworthy aircraft from the Second World War, is a relatively new addition to the group of organisations that tour the United States displaying parts of their collection as they go. It has, however, with its fleet of mostly single engine fighters, complemented the established collections, such as the Commemorative Air Force and the Collings Foundation, whose heavy bombers are seen by hundred of thousands of people each year. It has, of course, a similar mantra to those organisations as Warren Pietsch, vice president…

Following the news of the first flight of Doug Hamilton’s ex-49th Fighter Group (FG) P-40N Warhawk (see page 40), two former Wangaratta stablemates, in the form of two other Australian P-40 restorations, have recently appeared in the United States. The P-40M, A29-310, previously under restoration at Wangaratta for Stephen Grey, but now owned by Tom and Dan Friedkin’s Comanche Fighters, made its first flight as N40DF in Texas on 27 February. It was at Davis-Monthan AFB, in early March, wearing a 450 Squadron RAAF desert scheme complete with boxing kangaroo noseart. This particular artwork was a popular choice within the squadron and several aircraft carried variations during the unit’s time in the North African and Italian campaigns. The RAAF career of A29-310 was relatively uneventful. Delivered as 43-5508, it was…

Two Convair CV-440 airliners in South Africa are to move to greener pastures. One aircraft has been sold to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) in Australia. The other Convair will hopefully join the Breitling Lockheed Constellation in Switzerland. It will be the first time the two aircraft have been owned by separate entities. ZS-ARV, the HARS acquisition, and ZSBRV, were built for the USAF in 1954 as a VC-131D and C-131D respectively. They were eventually placed in storage at Davis-Mon-than, in Arizona, until purchased by the Bolivian airline Lineas Aereas Canedo in 1992. As the Bolivian road network improved, however, domestic passenger numbers dwindled and the propliners were again retired. An employee of South African entrepreneur Rohan Vos noted the aircraft for sale, a deal was made and the…

The Boeing P-26 was a groundbreaking design for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) in the 1930s. Nicknamed ‘Peashooter’, because of the long tubular gun-sight that protruded from its windscreen, the P-26 was the Army’s first all-metal monoplane pursuit type. Flown for the first time on 20 March 1932, the Peashooter entered service in December 1933. Only 151 were manufactured before production ended in 1936. A few were still in service with the USAAC, primarily for training and squadron hack duties, at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The type did see combat, however, with one in service during the Spanish Civil War, eleven used by the Republic of China against the Japanese in the late 1930s, and a dozen or so flown by the Philippine Army…

A little more than two months after famed Lockheed Constellation ‘Bataan’ was ferried to Chino, California, another well-known example left Arizona for greener pastures on the other side of the country. The first ‘Air Force One’, the VC-121A named ‘Columbine II’, began its journey to its new home in Virginia on March 21. Now owned by Karl Stoltzfus’ Dynamic Aviation, the aircraft (serial 48-610) flew President Eisenhower for two years from November 1952 and was finally sold at auction in May 1970. The new owners, Christler Flying Service, used it as a spares source for their agricultural spraying fleet, but then restored the long-time derelict to flight in the late 1980s. It appeared at several air-shows before several stints in storage in New Mexico and Arizona between 1991 and May…

The official dedication to honour the eleven men on board Consolidated Catalina A24-25 was held on the morning of 28 February at the Catalina Memorial on the Cairns Esplanade. Seventy-three years to the day earlier, the Catalina crashed while attempting to carry out a forced landing at sea after becoming lost in heavy weather. The wreck was not found until a local diver discovered it in 2013 (see Flightpath Vol.27-No.2). A Lockheed Orion from 11 Squadron, the same unit as the lost Catalina, flew over the memorial before the official proceedings commenced. The official service was attended by many generations of family members of the crew who, with senior Air Force personnel, Cairns RSL, Cairns City Council and members of the community laid wreaths at the memorial to remember those…

Dear Rob, I was very interested in Andy Wright’s feature ‘Australia’s Forgotten Mariner’ (Flightpath Vol 27, No.1). I would be one of the few still around who have Martin Mariner experience. In September 1944 I was posted as a Leading Aircraftman Fitter IIA (Airframes) to No. 41 Squadron in Cairns to service the mighty Martin Mariners. I say ‘mighty’ because my previous experience had been servicing Wackett trainers and DH84s at No. 1 (Ballarat) and No. 3 (Maryborough) Wireless Air Gunner Schools. I served with the squadron until it was disbanded in July 1945. I have described my time with 41 Squadron in the final chapter of my book ‘Not To Be Shot At Or Exported – An airman’s letters home 1942-1945’. It is a detailed account of daily life…

Hi Rob, I was interested to read the ‘Catalina Round Up’ piece by Andy Wright and have a few comments that might be useful. The caption to the VH-ASA photo on page 68 refers to this aircraft as a ‘PB2B-2 Canso’. The first bit is correct but it was never a Canso, a name limited to those Catalinas built for the RCAF on Canadian contracts. VH-ASA had no connection with the RCAF whatsoever although it was built in Vancouver, BC, which is possibly where the confusion has arisen. The captions to three of the photos include the designation ‘PBV-1A’. This designation was allotted to a quantity of Catalinas, equivalent to the Consolidated-built US Navy PBY-5A, that were to be built by Canadian Vickers. Before any of them were completed, the…

Built at Mascot in 1942, to a RAAF order, by de Havilland Australia, the Dragon (c/n 2059) was handed over to the RAAF and taken on charge as A34-70 on 8 April 1943 at No. 2 Aircraft Park, Bankstown. The following month it was returned to de Havilland for modifications to allow the fitting of wireless equipment and then allocated to No. 7 Aircraft Depot at Tocumwal, NSW, for further modifications before being received at No. 1 Wireless Air Gunners School (WAGS), Ballarat, Victoria, on 23 August 1943. The aircraft served at 1 WAGS for more than a year. With the war in the Pacific progressing favourably for the Allies, training programmes were reduced and the Dragon was placed in storage, with No. 5 Aircraft Depot at Wagga, NSW, on…

In the evening of 2 March, in the shadow of the former Airworld hangar at Wangaratta, the flame and throaty bark from the Allison’s exhaust signalled the beginning of a new life for the Curtiss P-40N-5-CU Warhawk and a significant step for the company that restored it. With its owner Doug Hamilton at the controls, the aircraft took off for the first time in 72 years and performed flawlessly during the fifteen-minute flight. The project was acquired in 2011 by the well-known aircraft collector and warbird pilot from Whorouly, Victoria. The fighter had been recovered as a wreck from Papua New Guinea in 2004 and the previous owner, Gus Larard, contracted the late Murray Griffith’s Precision Aerospace Productions to undertake the restoration. However, in 2011, the project was put up…

The U.S. Navy’s Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, began its 2016 season with a performance at the NAF El Centro Air Show on Saturday, March 12. Although based at Pensacola, Florida, El Centro is the squadron’s winter training ground, primarily because of ideal weather and the relatively open skies of Southern California’s Imperial County. Originally founded as a Marine Corps Air Station, the airbase at El Centro became a Naval Air Facility on 1 May 1946. It was also later designated as a Naval Auxiliary Landing Field and as the National Parachute Test Range before once again becoming a Naval Air Facility. As such, the base is an ideal facility for touch-and-go landing training and its vast open ranges are also available for ordnance delivery training, with its Weapons…