The following news item about a special Monospar Anniversary has just been posted on the Newark Air Museum website.
“Fifty years ago today General Aircraft Monospar VH-UTH piloted by Dr John Morris and Bruce Harrison set off on its epic flight from Australia to England.
The first leg of the journey commenced on the afternoon of August 18, 1961 and was flown was from Sydney to Brisbane.
VH-UTH left Australian soil from Darwin on August 22, 1961 and the 12,000 mile [19,311km] journey, through twenty-two countries was eventually completed six weeks later at Lympne airfield on the south coast of England.
The journey is described in great detail in the book ‘Two Men in a Flying Machine’, but the date of the English landing is not given. From the available information it is believed that the landing at Lympne took place on September 30, 1961, but the museum is seeking feedback to confirm the accuracy of this date.
The route taken was as follows:
Australia: Sydney, Brisbane, Cloncurry, Katherine and Darwin.
Portuguese Timor: Bacau.
Indonesia: Koepang, Maumere, Den Pasar (Bali), Surabaya, Jakarta and Palembang.
Singapore: Singapore.
Malaysia: Penang.
Thailand: Phuket.
Burma: Mergui, Rangoon, Kyaukpyu and Akyab.
East Pakistan: Chittagong.
India: Calcutta, Gaya, Benares, Delhi and Jodhpur.
West Pakistan: Karachi and Jiwani.
Gulf States: Sharjah, Bahrain and Kuwait.
Middle East: Baghdad, Damascus and Beiruit.
Cyprus: Nicosia.
Greece: Rhodes and Athens.
Italy: Brindisi, Naples and Rome.
France: Nice, Lyon and Paris.
Great Britain: Lympne and Biggin Hill.
Any details can be sent through via email at
THIS ADDRESS or via telephone at 01636 707170.
The mark the 50th Anniversary of VH-UTH’s landing at Lympne the museum is planning to host a short photo-call for the aircraft on Friday 30th September 2011. Subject to appropriate weather conditions it is planned that the partially restored airframe will be lowered from its trestles and moved outside to allow improved photographic access.
Details of the timings and final arrangements will be posted on the news page nearer the day.”
By: TwinOtter23 - 29th September 2011 at 21:04
A photograph has been added here from today’s practice run!!
By: TwinOtter23 - 29th September 2011 at 19:46
Great weather forecast for tomorrow – I understand that a trial run took place today; the move out went ok and the wings very folded out and ‘arrayed’ as well! 🙂
However photography space is a bit tight!!
By: TwinOtter23 - 28th September 2011 at 09:32
An update about what is happening on Friday 30th September has been added to the website News Page the main details are as follows:
“Having received several communications confirming the Monospar’s landing date in the UK as being 30th September; coupled with the good weather forecast – the planned ‘outing’ of the Monospar will take place on Friday 30th September 2011.
The project is still very much one that comes under the category of ‘work in progress’ but the volunteers have now lowered the airframe off its trestles and it is nearly ready to be moved out into the Nottinghamshire countryside in two days time. As such we hope that visitors will accept that some of the ‘fastenings’ are of a temporary nature, but they do enable people to gain a good impression of the remerging distinctive shape of the airframe.
It is currently anticipated that the airframe will be outside from 1030 hours through until 1530 hours and it will be available for photography’ albeit this may be slightly restricted due to the close proximity of the Meteor NF14 airframe, which is nearing the end of its restoration”
By: TwinOtter23 - 22nd August 2011 at 20:15
Fifty years ago today – VH-UTH left Australia, when it departed from Darwin!
By: TwinOtter23 - 18th August 2011 at 10:24
I dare say he would!
The museum now has good contacts with the Morris family in Australia and members of the Steiger family in the UK – hopefully we might be able to get some involvement from some of them in September. 😉
The latest museum newsletter reports on the project that: “The port wing locking mechanism is now correctly aligned with the inner folding wing mechanism; and the whole system works!”
That’s it from me until later – off on a museum visit to HHA at Scampton! 😀
By: old eagle - 18th August 2011 at 09:13
Neville F would be proud to see her today…..R I P my friend
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August 18, 2011 at 7:33 am