Avro Avian seen on the move

Add CF-CDQ which survives in Canada. I took this shot some years back prior to its restoration. This (like CF-CDV) is radial engined. CF-CDQ is now in immaculate condition although static with the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa.

I see mention in an earlier post of G-ABLK in Australia – I recall the remains of this were briefly displayed in the UK at the Australian High Commission in the early 1960s after their discovery in Algeria. The aircraft had crashed in the desert back in 1929 during a record flight attempt by Bill Lancaster. More details here: http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/miller.html Good to hear the artefact is displayed in Oz.

Tim

I’ve got…
VH-UHC
VH-UVR
G-ABEE

In Adelaide, South Australia, there is VH-UQE and VH-UVX.

Avro Avian’s still around….

G-EBOU – Au
G-EBZM – UK
VH-??? – Au
VH-UFZ – USA
VH-UVR – Au
G-CAUH – UK
G-EUJG – UK
SE-ADT – Sw
G-ABLK – Au
G-ACGT – UK
CF-CDV – Ca
VH-UQE – Au

Please ad to it if you can.

The was a project underway on the U.S west coast

Avro Avian’s still around….

G-EBOU – Au
G-EBZM – UK
VH-??? – Au
VH-UFZ – USA
VH-UVR – Au
G-CAUH – UK
G-EUJG – UK
SE-ADT – Sw
G-ABLK – Au
G-ACGT – UK
CF-CDV – Ca
VH-UQE – Au

Please ad to it if you can.

Looking forward to seeing your usual magic worked on those Avians when finished Civil Aero!

There is of course another in Europe, namely SE-ADT (ex G-AAHD) which I found suspended from the ceiling of a restaurant in Sweden. This is one that had a cabin modification. I doubt that the diners appreciate the rarity hanging over them. Here’s one of my pictures:

Tim

We do have a second Avian under rebuild at this time, which is G-CAUH. All the woodwork is finish and the airframe is ready for covering. The plan is to fit a Gipsy II in the aircraft.

Civil Aero.

Greg Herrick still has his in the US, although when I spoke with him at Blakesburg in 2012 he said that he was not currently operating it

There are at least three presently in the UK. Namely: G-EBZM, G-ACGT plus the ex Oz one being restored over here as pictured above.

I have also photographed surviving Avians in Canada.

Tim

While this thread has made us well aware of the two Avians in Britain, and some in Australia, just how many are in Australia/New Zealand, or indeed elsewhere, and of what status?

Looks like ‘BZM was rescued in the nick of time!
Lots of good info on ‘BEE’s travels (travails?) – thanks fellas! 🙂

civil aero has kindly sent me the attached photo to post. G-EUJG (formerly VH-UJG) has come along in leaps and bounds and I believe will not be too far off from taking to the air again.
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There was some discussion about the Yorkshire based G-ACGT on the Air Britain forum last summer the upshot of which was that it remains stored with a family member but as it is the oldest surviving EI- registered aircraft there is a possibility that it may return to Ireland……….and then the trail went cold again !

Tim,

Do you have a year for this?

Whilst talking about Avians it would be wonderful to see G-ACGT emerge from it’s long term hibernation. It is beleived to be stored in Yorkshire.

Planemike

I will look into the date re my photo of BEE can’t recall precisely – I used to report for a magazine on those events so I’ll likely have some record.

So far as ‘CGT goes, I was in correspondence with Mike Rockliffe about it when he had it at Yeadon. He moved it later to a private workshop off airfield. I spoke to him on the phone after he retired and was arranging to visit but sadly he passed away before I could so so.

Tim

Viscount, thanks for your really interesting input. I can assure you that G-ABEE was taken by closed van to that PFA rally and the remains we’re laid out on the grass adjacent to a visiting aircraft. I certainly still have my b&w negative, but it isn’t easily accessible at present though I will retrieve it from storage when I can. The presence of the airframe possibly wasn’t reported widely as IIRC the skeletal remains we’re only present for part of one day.

It was interesting to see you mention MSAE of which I was a member at one time even though I was based in the Midlands!

Many years back in my day job I worked with S.G.Jones who’s picture of EZM you scanned. He was better known as George Jones and was the editor of Wrecks & Relics immediately prior to Ken taking on that mantle.

Tim

My notes around G-ABEE are sketchy as the aircraft never had a Liverpool connection. Seems it was discovered, late 1963 at Selhurst Grammar School in a very bad state and purchased reputedly for £5. G-ABEE is an Avro 594 Avian IVM, a metal version. Jon details above the move north to Manchester. After donating parts to G-EZBM’s rebuild the remains were stored for some time at a number of locations, including Stockport (noted there early 70s). The frame was in store at Wigan, when sold and exported during 1978 to Australia apparently as a restoration project.

With a departure date to limit my search, I have been through enthusiast logs for the annual PFA Rally at Sywell for right through the 70s to 1979, looking for an appearance. I could find no entry – but that does not mean that the frame was not there one year, just simply not recognised for what it was and recorded!

Changing tack slightly. The references to no flying Avian in Britain struck a memory chord, as I felt sure I had seen one at a Woodford Air Show in the ’90s. Sure enough I had, on 6th June 1998 – but it was an Australian example VH-UFZ.

G-ABEE was sold in the UK in 5/59. In 6/60, it was being rebuilt in the UK, but not registered and subsequently was an instructional frame for ‘ATC’. Then it went to Oz where it became a film star.

I remember the skeletal remains of what was reportedly G-ABEE appearing via road at a PFA Rally at Sywell just before their export to Oz. I’ve got a b&w stored somewhere.Tim

Tim,

Do you have a year for this?

Whilst talking about Avians it would be wonderful to see G-ACGT emerge from it’s long term hibernation. It is beleived to be stored in Yorkshire.

Planemike

As mentioned above group records state BZM was delivered to Stretford November 1962

As for ‘BEE, that came North over the weekend of 30th Nov/1st Dec 1963 packed in a 25ft glider trailer!

Jon

The ‘rescue’ of the Avro 594 Avian III G-EZBM could be considered the first act of the ‘amateur’ preservation movement in Britain, although is not too often acknowledged as such. The story actually goes back before the photo on the OP of this thread. Although not involved personally, I am in a position to tell the story as related by some who were.

The aircraft was rescued from the fire dump at Ringway (Manchester Airport) shortly before it was to be burnt when members of the ‘Merseyside Group of Aviation Enthusiasts’ (MGAE) at Liverpool realised its historic significance having operated with Merseyside Aero & Sports Ltd at Hooton Park from early 1929 and then as a joy-riding mount with Giro Aviation at Southport Beach from 1932 until retirement in 1938, and stored dismantled by Giro at Hesketh Park throughout the war and beyond. In the ’50s purchased by Bernard Murphy an engineer with Eagle’s maintenance base on Ringway’s South side. When Eagle suddenly closed their base in 1958, Murphy transferred to either Bermuda or The Bahamas; so he and a partner gave their dismantled aircraft to the fire service, although the refuse department got there first and removed Fleet 7C G-AEJY and bits of G-EBZM to a local tip. However, the Avian fuselage and two wings were taken over by the Fire Service and dumped in some old firing butts pending incineration. MGAE member Alan Madden was an ATCO at Ringway and talked the Airport Fire Officer into parting with it.

Around April 1959 G-EBZM was rescued from the Ringway Fire Service and loaded by sheer youthful muscle power (Phil Dale, Bryan Heatley, Peter Schofield, Ian Keast, Phil Butler and 3 or 4 further MGAE members) onto a borrowed flat-bed truck and transported to Bryan Heatley’s father’s garage off Tarbock Road in Huyton, near Liverpool. After a year or so, Heatley senior got fed up avoiding the Avian whenever he needed his car, so it had to move on! As some MGAE members were involved with the ‘Double Alfa Flying Group’ operating Proctor G-AIAA, the Avian moved to Speke Airport (Liverpool) to share Hangar No.50 around June 1960. For a while the MGAE paid the Airport monthly for storage space until it got more than the group’s finances could manage. During February 1961 it was moved from Speke’s Hangar 50 to Lymm Grammar School where MGAE member Peter Schofield was teaching and able to provide storage until workshop space could be found. At this stage concern for the future restoration and funding of Avian G-EBZM provided the spark for some MGAE members and others to form the Northern Aircraft Preservation Society (NAPS) in late October 1962, with G-EBZM their initial aircraft. Ownership transferred from the MGAE to NAPS November 1962. The photo on the OP link would have been subsequently moving it from Lymm Grammar School to be more accessible in a garage in Moss Road, Stretford November 1962 (thanks Jon for providing the month), so was actually the 4th road move following rescue!

NAPS, later to become The Aeroplane Collection (TAC), undertook the long term rebuild to display condition in the Manchester area, mainly at their premises in Peel Green and Wigan. The restoration being aided by using parts of another Avian G-ABEE found by the group in November 1962. After much work ‘ZM was suitable for display and made some brief appearances at local air displays around Manchester eg Woodford RAeS Garden Party June 1966 (less wings), LAC’s 50th Anniv Show at Barton Sept 1972 (complete), before going out on long-term loan for display with the Torbay Aircraft Museum from June 1973. It returned to Manchester 9th December 1982 and then loan to Manchester Museum of Science and Industry (MoSI) where it has been on display since the opening 30th March 1983, to the present day. Very few of the public seeing it there looking pristine will have very little idea of its local history and significant part played in the very early days of the aircraft preservation movement in Britain.

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A Phil Butler photo, via Phil Dale of G-EBZM in storage at Hesketh Park, Southport in September 1953.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]225319[/ATTACH]

Photo is scanned from the 1974 reprint of ‘Wrecks and Relics 1961’. Caption states taken at Speke August 1960, photographer not identified but likely George Jones.

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Photo is scanned from a 1979 MAS Flypast, taken by S.G.Jones of G-EZBM being erected at a Barton in September 1972 for Lancashire Aero Club’s 50th Anniversary Air Display event.

References: Don Stephens a founder member of MGAE, compiler of MGAE’s W&R 1 in 1961 and W&R 2 in 1963, and who remains in contact with many of the original rescuers – without whose intervention the Avian would most certainly have been ‘lost’. Also ‘British Museum Aircraft’ Ken Ellis, MAS, 1977 and MAS ‘Flypast’, Ken Ellis & Phil Butler, 1983.
Footnote: The 1956 formed MGAE became the MSAE then Merseyside Aviation Society (MAS) until 1986, then the North West Air News Group and since 2006 as nwan.co.uk website and associated forum.

Would love to see that photo but unfortunately we cannot view it as the insertion only provides the path to the item within your own PC. There is helpful guidance in the FAQ area of the Forum about how to attach / post images – hope that helps.

file:///C:/Users/mike/Desktop/work%20comp/airtime%20work/MY%20PICTURES/Mike/VH-UJG/IMGP0964.JPG