Volume 20 #3, Issue 91

LANCASTER LEGACY

Well respected warbird pilot Keith Skilling was able to add another iconic aircraft to his résumé whilst attending the Hamilton air show. But as Keith briefly explains in this article - this opportunity was special on a personal level. As a follow up to Keith’s experience we then take a look at the history of the Lancaster he had the opportunity to take command of, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's aircraft, which is one of only two currently flying. The bomber pays tribute to the bravery of a wartime Pilot Officer, and indeed all aircrew who were involved with this iconic aircraft.

AERONCA AIRBORNE!

John Illsley describes the fifteen year journey that saw an historic Aeronca C3 rebuilt and returned to the sky in South Africa. Part of what made this diminutive aircraft worthy of rebuild for John is that it was flown to South Africa from England in 1936 by David Llewellyn. This took three weeks, 150 hours of flying and 1,900 miles (3,058 kms) - but the economical little aircraft (with all of 40hp up front) brought him safely to Johannesburg. With the aircraft now back where it belongs the plan now is to potter around the circuit and the local area, but John may take it to a few air shows in his part of the country but as he states– “the slow cruising speed really precludes anything more ambitious unless you have a lot of time on your hands!”

MYSTERY AIRCRAFT

Imperial Japan placed much emphasis on its Navy and in parallel, floatplanes. They would not only be the eyes of the fleet, but allow localised air superiority to be attained without the huge cost of labour and materials needed to build land based airfields close enough to an area of operations in a part of the world which covered a vast area and was sparsely populated. One of the most successful in fulfilling the role was the Mitsubishi F1M2 Navy Type 0 (Allied code name ‘Pete’). It was a surprisingly good performer, exhibiting exceptional manoeuvrability which saw it employed as much more – as an interceptor, dive bomber and combat patrol aircraft.

WARBIRDS DOWNUNDER

During the course of a Saturday in early November, visitors to Temora Airport, south west of Sydney, Australia, bore witness to what must be considered one of the greatest warbirds shows yet staged in ‘The Lucky Country’. Hosted by the Temora Aviation Museum, the event attracted a broad mix of about 35 different types ranging from WW-II to the present day, and representing every decade in between. Fortunately our chief photographer was one of the privileged few to be selected to board the HARS Caribou on a preshow photo shoot - and the results are stunning!

RENO’S 50TH

You have to love the enthusiasm of the folks who run the Reno Air Races. Whilst they are proud that this remarkable event has survived five decades of giving us “The World’s Fastest Motor Sport”, they’re not looking backwards for an instant, instead looking forwards enthusiastically to the next half century of air racing at Reno! And this year’s event certainly was a success and some might say, successful against the odds. For years we have had a variety of good people covering this prestigious event on behalf of Classic Wings, this year however we were pleased to field a larger team with Ned Dawson and the Editor joining the ‘regular’ Canadian crew for a week in the Nevada desert - and what a week it was!

SOUTHERN SPITFIRES Part 1 - Airworthy Survivors

Perhaps as many as 700 Spitfires and Seafires served in the region around Australasia during WW-II. Not too many of those remain today of course, with even fewer of them in flying condition. This short serving of ‘elliptical winged eye-candy’ illustrates the small number of Spitfires presently flying ‘downunder’. The Spitfire has not enjoyed quite the resurgence of activity in the region that some of the other fighters have, such as the Mustangs and Kittyhawks, however those Spitfires presently flying within Australasia are in fine fettle as these stunning air to air images can attest.

AIRSHOWS

Hahnweide, Mustangs & More.