Dave HomewoodI thought that you chaps may find this article interesting, written by a Defiant air gunner. It comes from RNZAF Contact magazine in August 1944. I hope the scans are readable.
edit – the pages loaded up in the completely opposite order from what i posted them :confused: , so start reading from the bottom up. 🙂
Dave
Dave HomewoodDenys,
The fuselage that has gone to Canada from Glyn Powell is for a static restoration. It was detailed in Classic Wings about a year ago. The fuselage was effectively a test shot for his new moulds, to ensure they work OK.
Apparently it came out beautifully and the moulds are perfect, but if I recall correctly this static example didn’t use aviation grade wood – is this correct anyone?
I don’t have the magazine in front of me. but from memory the article stated Glyn was now going to make the first airworthy newbuild fuselage, which will go into his own rebuild of an ex-RNZAF Mossie, that he does intend to fly.
Dave HomewoodNo, it would not have been a presentation Spitfire. Sorry, I didn’t pick up on that one when I read Geoff’s message. Pukerimu is a tiny community with really just a few farms.
Even when the Cambridge district as a whole fundraised to buy aircraft they didn’t raise enough to have a single plane emblasened with CAMBRIDGE on it. The only one that the town managed to get a credit for that I know of was Spitfire MkVB W3645, OU-S, of 485 (NZ) Sqn, which was the personal mount of Cambridge’s own E.P. ‘Bill’ Wells. Waikato, by the way, is the provence in which our fair town is situated.
Here are two links to my website about fundraising the town did for aircraft funds:
1940 Spitfire Fund (I think it was this that eventually helped buy W3645)
http://www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/Aeroplane%20Fund%201940.htm
Bonds For Bombers
http://www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/RNZAF%20Band.htm
Note the huge difference in the sums raised. Think the situation seemed much more desperate in the second fundraiser.
Dave HomewoodThanks Geoff.
Mark12, I don’t have the serial as of yet. I intend to go back and see Mrs Fisher to get more details from Roy’s logbook, hopefully tomorrow. I I find more, I’ll post it.
Dave HomewoodI have seen the book in the library and have used it to help with several Cambridge Spitfire pilots. I don’t know if Mr Morris would have any photos of the aircraft, but I guess i could give him a try. I thought maybe some of the Spitfire nuts here like Mark12 might have something tucked away in their collections.
Dave HomewoodNow, back to my original thread topic…
Dave HomewoodGreat to hear you will still be coming over the ditch.
Motat’s Lancaster is NX665, which is an ex-French navy example (like one of yours in Australia too). It was based in Noumea and flew maritime patrol work in the Pacific. I belive while in service the French Lancs often visited NZ. When it finally retired in the mid-1960s, it was donated to the people of New Zealand by the French Government (I guess because of New Zealand’s efforts in bomber Command to free france). It was decided to display it at Motat which was the only major aircraft collection in NZ. Had it been retired a decade later it may well have gone instead to the RNZAF Museum I’d expect, but at least it did get a home and wasn’t broken up.
They flew it into Whenuapai, and then removed the wings (I think the main spar was cut then) and they trucked it down to Motat’s main facility (Motat 1)where it could be seen from the road. Later when Sir Keith Park Memorial Airfield (Motat 2) was constructed they shifted it up the road to there. I recall while at Motat 1 they used to run the engines regularly. I’m not sure if this ever occurred at Motat 2.
As funds ran low for the museum, it went through a very bad period in the 1970;s and 80’s. The Lanc, along with other planes outdoors, became neglected for a couple of decades out in the Auckland sea air and the horrid weather that city endures, and at one point looked very shabby indeed. I’m told the wings were about to drop off under their own weight. The Bomber Command Association of New Zealand got a team togheter and raised money for a building, and then its restoration. It was also converted back to a BMkIII standard, and is now extremely complete as that model, and extremely beautiful. The team did a fantastic job in restoring it on limited funds. Some work was donated to the project, including the lovely paintjob which was done by the RNZAF S&S team from Auckland.
If you are lucky and you get there when its quiet, you meet the right museum guide and you say the right things they may let you have a look inside her. I’ve been inside, it’s a wonderful experience.
There’s a much better page on its histroy on Phil Treweek’s site here
http://www.kiwiaircraftimages.com/lanc.html with lots of photos.
I have several photos I took myself but none are scanned, so I’ll pinch somone else’s. This photo came from this site http://www.chez.com/eternalflight/lancaster.html that deals with the ex-French Lancaster survivors.
As of April 2004 when I last visited, the Sunderland was being restored and readied for a new hangar extension. The C47 was almost repainted in splendid NAC colours. The Lodestar was being stripped for a repaint too, and will also go inside with the hangar extension. The Lodestar and Sundy are the only planes outdoors now, apart from the BofB Movie Hurricane replica which is on a pole and looking lovely. Also under restoration apparently in a hangar we didn’t go into was their Avenger, which has spent a lot of time off site at Dairy Flat but is apparently back at Motat.
They are much better sorted as a museum now and have Govt backing nowadays, so most planes once neglected have been restored and displayed very nicely. There is more efforts to come but they are so much better than the olden days when I used to visit as a kid/teen. Also, they have a new acquisition which is an ex-Air NZ Friendhip, which is in Christchurch and they’re working outhow to get it to Motat. This will be the last aircraft they want to acquire the curator told us.
Over the years because of the neglect a lot of their aircraft were taken out of the museum by their owners, which is a shame for the museum (ex-OMFC Corsair, TFC P39, P47 being restored in Aussie), but eventually some got flying – which Motat doesn’t do. They do have one flyer in the collection, the Ryan STM based at Ardmore.
Anyway, I hope that give you a bit of an idea.
Dave HomewoodWow!!!
And I thought your other threads from your trip were good, but this is fantastic. You not only had a fantastic and rare experience but also got some lovely photos to remember it all by.
Well done mate, looks as if it is worth every cent.
Dave
Dave HomewoodThanks Mark,
I will PM you
Dave
Dave HomewoodGreat stuff. I can just imagine it when visitors quietly perusing the displays when they suddenly hear a hissing sound and the plane starts to flex its muscles. 🙂 It must cause a few funny moments.
I have an idea – if it were for water use and you were in one of the multiple types that carried a Gibson Girl set, you could use the hydrogen generator to inflate it, and give it a bit more lift. 😀
Dave HomewoodWhat an awesome idea. Was it intended for pilots crashed in water? Like a liferaft-flying boat. Or was it simply for use on land?
Do you have any idea what era this is from? Was it used during the war?
Dave HomewoodThanks Peter, great photos. I love tha Anson and the Bollingbroke. And the Norseman is an unsual one of interest too. Can you let us know which ones fly, which ones may fly someday and which are fully static?
Cheers
Dave
Dave HomewoodThen maybe a remake of the B of B movie that would be authentic 🙂
Well no, because most of the Buchons that have been re-engined with German engines have been made into Bf109G models, so though a little more aesthetically pleasing they won’t actually be authentic for a Battle of Britain film. We’d also need all the Spits re-engined and possibly retailed to look like Mk I’s and II’s. 🙂
I think Brad Pitt would be very good, he’s a good actor and can do an Irish accent very well. I’m sure he could do an English one if he tried. 🙂 he’d be much better than the less versatile Tom Cruise, put it that way. Although Tom can actually fly the planes which is a bonus I suppose.
Dave HomewoodThanks Crazymainer, great to hear he’s still around, but even better to hear that you’ve recorded his story. Your book sounds fascinating and I hope it goes well. Is it focusing on just the American collectors, or will there be a more worldwide approach to it? There are a few interesting stories here in New Zealand alone, Armstrong and Darby, John Smith, etc…
I don’t know a great deal about either David Tallichet or Doug Arnold – in fact i know almost notheing about hi except he owned some warbirds in the 1970’s or so. So such a book would be great.
Setter, thanks for that too, interesting. The Armstrong/Darby P39 that came to NZ did I believe come directly here, along with the P47 (now in Aussie), a Beaufort (now in Aussie?) and several P40’s that were the founding aircraft much later of the excellent Pioneer P40 factory. The P39 and P47 were once resident for some time at Motat.
Dave HomewoodCharles Darby and Monty Armstrong recovered the P39 that is now flying with the TFC at Duxford, during that Tallichet raid on the islands. Maybe that’s one of them,
Is David Tallichet still alive?
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