Sorry to bring this back up to the top but I have just located more information.

The first aircraft to land on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands group was the RNZAF Lockheed Lodestar NZ3508, captained by Flt Lt Tom Mounsey, on the 25th of Nov 1944. The airport was constructed by the New Zealand Aerodrome Services Branch, and was a gift to the Cooks from NZ Prime Minister Peter Fraser.

This was reported (with photo of said first landing) in NZ Wings magazine in August 1986, as part of a wider report about an RNZAf Exercise there from 8th July-5th August 1986 called Operation Joint Venture, with Hercules’s, Iroquois’s, Andovers, Skyhawks, an Orion and a Boeing 727 plus NZ army troops and Navy Wasp.

[QUOTE=Mike J]Worthless?[QUOTE]

I do believe that was the word he used. I was quite gobsmacked because i had always assuned that the rarer WWII type, and one equally as popular at airshows when they are flying, would have been quite something of value even when in a dissasembled and unrestored state (much like the one that has left Duxford for Holland).

Still, I guess his comments come from his view as an engineer with a restoration company whose business is to make its money from restoring airframes, and they see it is a much more risky investment – it would be harder to find parts, a bigger job to restore to the air than a Spitfire that they have all the tooling for, and less attractive on the market when complete as it has less “appeal” than a Spitfire. It would (like a Spitfire) likely cost a lot more to restore than they can sell it for when complete, and that margin for loss there is probably higher. So in their eyes, not worth it I guess.That is the impression I got from the chap. Nice guy he was too. Not the sort to talk bull.

However, if someone was to come along with a passion for the Firefly and invest in it for themselves to own and operate, rather than for resale, it’d be a whole different story. That is what’s needed.

a Spitfire especially one with a good covenant is worth a lot of money, probably more than a Firefly.

I should say so. While at Ardmore last month I was told by an AvSpecs engineer that the two Fireflies they have sitting in a container are worthless, no-one wants them, because they will cost so much to restore and will never get the return value of a Spitfire. Sad, I’d love to see one of them in the air.