Boomerang Survivors
Now that Matthew Denning's stunning Boomerang has made a triumphant return to airworthiness, we thought it a prudent time to detail the history, as well as to outline what the future holds for this stubby little fighter. The Boomerang aircraft was a derivative of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) produced Wirraway training aircraft, this type being analysed within Issue 20 of this journal. Based on the North American Aviation NA-16 design, the first locally produced Wirraway flew on the 27th March 1939. Even before the aircraft had flown however, a fighter variant was being considered during mid 1938. At that time, it was planned to stay with the two seat lay out of the Wirraway, but to re-engine it with a Pratt & Whitney R1830 Twin Wasp radial engine of 1200 horsepower. This engine possessed twice the horsepower of the Wirraway's normal propulsion. Top
	The Bosbok Tale
	It never ceases to amaze me how a chance remark or a simple 'phone call can set in motion a chain of events that were totally unplanned. The 'phone call was to Mike Ekiss of San Antonio, Texas. The object was to locate our mutual friend Bob Moorehouse with whom I had temporarily lost contact. Bruce had purchased a 'Bosbok' from the original disposal batch in 1992. I was waiting for Bruce to send me photos of his 'Bosbok' so that I could see what one was supposed to look like. Mike's response was to tell me that he'd recently imported one for himself and that it was an impressive beast, reasonably priced and that a couple more were still available in South Africa. Top
Bf109 Survivors - Part 4
The Legacy- Part 4 - Hispano Survivors The Spanish Hispano Aviacion Buchon (Pigeon) had its beginnings in June 1943 when the Spanish Government reached agreement with Messerschmitt to produce 200 109G-2s. Although tooling and some plans were supplied, the deteriorating war situation for Germany meant that only twenty five fuselage and wings were supplied, without tail assemblies and engines. Despite this, assembly began at Seville in 1944. When it became obvious that no further help would be coming from Germany, work began to convert the airframe to accept the Swiss built Hispano-Suiza 12Z, fitted with a Hamilton propeller and on 2.3.45 the first conversion took to the air as the HA-1109-J1L. Top
	National Air & Space Museum Treasures
	Counting Down at the Udvar-Hazy Centre This new annex is named after aviation businessman Steven F. Udvar-Hazy in honour of his donating $60 million towards, what is an estimated cost of $309 million, for the facility. The complex is located on a 176 acre site at Washington Dulles International Airport, Virginia. Planning for the 70,611 sq.m. building began almost twenty years ago, with construction finally starting in April 2001. Completion date is set for December 2003 to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers flight. Top