Youtube Bolingbroke Recovery ?

Perhaps I should form my own squadron then:D

Cees

Cees, you should really try to develop a military contact. A lot of transport aircraft cross the Atlantic with ‘space available’, as well as the Canucks we had the Norwegian Air Force and the Royal Air Force bring Halifax bits in on their Hercs.

It was usually done at squadron level.

Chaps,

So not to be mistaken. Vince was a very nice chap to talk to and the several telephone calls were very pleasant (and lengthy). At one point I even got his neighbour on the phone as he had emigrated from Holland during the fifties and wanted to test his Dutch (same as during my visit to Trenton, remember Deryck ).

The problem was indeed the costs of shipping and the Canadian Heritage law that the cockpit should at first be offered to interested parties in Canada and if they didn’t want it they I could get it:confused:
Very strange way to do things, but I believe that good contacts between musea could help which I am not of course.

Pity to leave so many Boly’s rotting away. Several would be nice to be put on display in Europe

Cees

Honest mistake..

Peter, Re the Lanc, you are no doubt correct, I did not dig back over 40 years of photos to check the number, it was a WAG.

I bet transport costs are the biggest hurdle for any aircraft or remains..

[QUOTE=Deryck;1710834]Hi Cees, No, not back yet, I think another month might see the snow melted!

I am surprised that Vince gave you a hard time with the Heritage crap. As I understand it he recently acquired the 8 or 9 surplus Bolys from CWH. They will just quietly rot away in his field. There are not a lot of customers for them. I still think we (NAFM) should grab at least a couple while they are available.

Might I ask is it because th eman is hard to deal with or is it the price he is asking for them and the problems with getting them ou tof Canada or a combination of all three ?. I know a few years back the museum in Malta managed to get a Swordfish project from Canada without to much hassle.

Hi darrell
Thanks for the info and good luck with the project
cheers
Jerry

Thanks for noticing Brewerjerry, this project is in Oshawa, it is a one man show and in total about 70 % of the parts needed to start rebuilding. Despite what people might think there are NOT airplanes all over the place to just go and get stuff from. The Boly will be finished in its original BCATP use as a Air Gunners platform, what I have been able to find it is RCAF # 10114, thanks Darrell

Hi All,
Thanks for the replies, so it seems to be a bit of a mystery a/c.
cheers
Jerry

Deryck the lanc in question would be KB889 now at duxford and nothign to do with the composite Lanc KB976 KB994 one that went to kermit

Hi Cees, No, not back yet, I think another month might see the snow melted!

I am surprised that Vince gave you a hard time with the Heritage crap. As I understand it he recently acquired the 8 or 9 surplus Bolys from CWH. They will just quietly rot away in his field. There are not a lot of customers for them. I still think we (NAFM) should grab at least a couple while they are available.

When are you visiting this year? I see that CWH has an airshow planned for June 18/19, 2011.

Great footage,

The Boly/Blenheim is a very classic aircraft and needs all the attention it can get. I once negotiated with Vince about a cockpit section but the difficult ways of Canadian Heritage laws and shipping put paid to that. But it still lingers on in the back of my mind.

Hi Deryck,
Back from hibernating already?

Cees

The period when Bob Stewart had his museum at the Oshawa airport would have been in the ’60’s, when I was learning to fly. The Oshawa Flying club had some instructors who had been based there during the war years.

In ’60’s in the hangars was a B-17 undergoing maintenance for Kenting.

A Lanc owned by the air cadets used to run it’s engines every Sunday. Kermit Weeks now has that airframe, or most of it.

A privately owned Mustang was active along with some Harvards.

The Hudson that was eventually mounted on a plinth at Gander was in the hangar having some Harvard engines installed to allow it to be ferried to Gander.

During the time I hung around the Oshawa airport I never saw any activity that might have been recognizable as part of a restoration of the Boly. Bob’s museum has gone now, or at least I have not been able to find anyone that has seen it lately. With the A/P mods it is now in a part that the public does not get to very often.

I spent some 13 years at the Canadian Warplane Heritage at Hamilton working on the Yale restoration and latterly on the Anson as crew chief. In 1995 I retired and moved to the Trenton area and I have been working in their restoration shop on the Halifax and the Anson. I think I would have heard if anyone in the area, other than CWH, was restoring a Boly.

So, Sorry ‘brewerjerry’ I cannot help you on this one.

A sign in the background seems to indicate the Oshawa Flying Club.
Years ago there used to be a museum operated by Bob Stewart in one of the old buildings at the airport, by the old hangars. There has been considerable work done at the airport, new terminal etc and I have not been back to the old side for some years.

Vince Connor at Goodwood Ontario has a few Bolys lying around. I have tried, without success, to get the National Air Force Museum of Canada to acquire enough Boly pieces while they are available even if only for use as patterns!

I am sure the owner will be along shortly to advise..

I once heard a guide at the Canadian Warplane Heritage museum say something to the effect of “there are lots of Bolies still around, each in a thousand pieces.”