Aeroplane September 2017

AEROPLANE SEPTEMBER 2017 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 13

September 2017 News

HAC DH

debuts at RIAT

A

IRCO DH9 E8894/

G-CDLI made its public

debut in the static

display at the Royal

International Air Tattoo at RAF

Fairford on 14-16 July. The

1918-vintage bomber, which is

yet to undertake its post-

restoration maiden fl ight, was

transported to Fairford by

road from the Westfi eld, East

Sussex workshops of Retrotec,

which has been working on

the machine for more than a

decade. After RIAT, where the

DH9 was exhibited as part of

the BAE Systems Heritage

display and won the trophy for

best civilian aircraft in the

show’s concours d’elegance,

E8894 was transported to the

Historic Aircraft Collection’s

Duxford base, reassembled

and rigged. Ben Dunnell

PUP LEAVES DUXFORD

Sopwith Pup N6161/G-ELRT was dismantled in Hangar 3 at IWM Duxford on 18 July

and loaded onto a truck for the first leg of a journey to a new owner in the USA. The

reconstructed fighter made its maiden post-restoration flight at Duxford on 17

October 2016 with Shuttleworth Collection chief pilot ‘Dodge’ Bailey at the controls

(see News, Aeroplane December 2016), and a sole display appearance at the

Duxford Air Festival in May this year. The 80hp Le Rhône-powered machine was

restored by Retrotec for previous owner Roy Palmer.

Another Stearman for Hood River

THE latest arrival at the

Western Antique Aeroplane

and Automobile Museum

(WAAM) in Hood River,

Oregon is an airworthy

example of the Stearman

4D Junior Speedmail,

acquired from Ron Rex of

Ocala, Florida. This aircraft

was the 25th Model 4

Stearman built, and was

originally registered as

N796H, fi tted with a 300hp

Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior. It was purchased new from the

factory in Wichita, Kansas for $15,000 by Long Island

socialite Aline Rhonie, a fascinating lady who learned to fl y at

the age of 20 and studied art in Mexico under Diego Rivera,

later painting a 113ft mural on a hangar at Roosevelt Field

telling the story of aviation on Long Island. Aline served as a

volunteer ambulance driver

in France during the early

part of the Second World

War, returned to the US

for a while as a Women’s

Air Ferry Service (WAFS)

pilot, and then spent a year

in the UK as an Air

Transport Auxiliary (ATA)

pilot.

Now registered N774H,

the Stearman has been

painted as a Western Air

Express aircraft which originally carried that registration. It

makes a fi tting addition to the WAAM collection, where it

joins an example of the earlier Stearman 3, an M-2 mailplane,

and the prototype Model 70, which later to become the

ubiquitous wartime Model 75 Kaydet trainer.

Mike Shreeve

The rotund but rakish Stearman 4D Junior Speedmail NC774H has

joined the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum in

Hood River, Oregon. MIKE SHREEVE

DH9 E8894 at Fairford after RIAT 2017, awaiting dismantling

and transportation to Duxford. BEN DUNNELL

RIGHT: Sopwith Pup N6161 about to leave Duxford in a

curtain-sided truck on 18 July. DAVID WHITWORTH

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