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Scramble 468

Pop-up museum

Pop-up restaurants are a fairly common sight nowadays,

trying to attract new clients at a temporary location. But res-

taurants may be common, pop-up museums are not. In this

respect the Dutch town of Nieuw-Vennep houses a novelty:

the pop-up “Nederlands Transport Museum”. The new

museum is housed in the former Bols liquor factory, which

later became one of the off airport locations of Fokker Ser-

vices. The idea of a Transport Museum was conceived by a

group of eleven Dutch organisations, all active in the field of

historic transport.

Fokker Heritage Trust

Stichting De Vliegtuig Compagnie

Stichting Decauville Smalspoor

Stichting Fokker Erfgoed

Stichting La Courtine

Stichting Mobiele Artillerie

Stichting Noorduyn Foundation

Stichting Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaart Museum

Stichting Verenigde Vleugels

Stichting Veteraan Autobussen

Vereniging Museumkwartier Hembrug

Together, they founded the ‘Stichting Nederlands Transport

Museum’. In the past months much of the collections of the

various foundations has been relocated to the new museum.

The aircraft restoration projects were trucked in from the

Hembrug facilities. And although the official opening of

the new museum is scheduled for ...., a sneak preview was

allowed in the week of the Spring holiday. During our visit

on 4 March, the following aircraft projects were displayed:

Noorduyn UC-64A Norseman CF-GLI

The Norseman present, was delivered to the USAAF as

43-5374 ( 365 ) on 29 February 1944. Unlike many other air-

craft of its type, it was only flown within the borders of the

USA. It was disposed of as soon as the war had ended. Already

on 20 August 1945 the Norseman was sold to Aero Service,

Los Angeles (CA) and registered as NC88719. After six years

in the US, the aircraft went back to its country of origin: it

was bought by Queen Charlotte Airlines, Vancouver (BC) and

registered as CF-GLI. ‘Lima India’ flew there until April 1953,

when she was sold to Air Dale, Sault Ste Marie (ONT). In the

years that followed the Norseman faithfully served a long

list of other owners. After Air Dale these were: Chapleau Air

Services, Kyrocos (Albany River) Airways, Mid Canada Sky

Services Ltd., Sky North Ltd., Red Lake Airways Ltd. before

finally arriving at the last operator, Gogal Air Services Ltd,

Snow Lake (MB) in June 1994. Unfortunately CF-GLI made

a heavy landing on a water surface on 10 June 2010. It was

withdrawn from use as a result of this, but salvaged by a heli-

copter in January the following year. Three years later the

aircraft was sold to the Dutch Stichting Norseman Founda-

tion, arriving at the Hembrug facilities in December 2014.

And although owned by this foundation, volunteers of ‘De

Vliegtuigcompagnie’ foundation are active in the restoration

to an airworthy condition of the aircraft. Early this year the

project was trucked from Hembrug to the new museum in

Nieuw-Vennep.

Tribute to Bob Noorduyn.

The restoration of CF-GLI is a tribute to the Noorduyn Air-

craft Company founded in Canada by Dutchman Robert B.C.

Noorduyn. He was born in Nijmegen on 6 April 1883, and after

technical studies in both Holland and Germany, he ended up

with Sopwith Aviation in England in 1913. He also worked

together with Frits Koolhoven for the British Aerial Trans-

port Company (BAT). In 1919 he returned to Holland and was

employed by Anthony Fokker. Fokker saw the potential of the

man and sent Noorduyn to the USA where he became director

of the Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America in Teterboro

(NJ). But eight years later Noorduyn chose to change to the

Bellanca company. In 1933 he founded, together with Walter

Clayton, his own company, Noorduyn Aviation. The company

found a residence in the former Curtiss-Reid factory in Cart-

erville, Quebec, Canada. It was there, where he designed his

famous Norseman , a simple and sturdy bushplane, which ful-

filled the needs of Canadian aviation. During WWII, the Noor-

duyn Aircraft Company started to licence build the North

American T-6 Texan for the Royal Canadian Air Force and

the Royal Air Force, known as the AT-16 Harvard. In 1946 the

company was taken over by Canadian Car & Foundry which

Nederlands Transport Museum

by Gert Jan Mentink

The Noorduyn built AT-16 in the museum displays an unusual colourscheme for Dutch Harvards. This immediate post-war mixture of trainer-

yellow and camouflage is not seen on other Harvards in our country. Most of these are yellow, with one exception, camouflaged PH-TBR, which

is flown by the Royal Netherlands Air Force Historic Flight of Gilze-Rijen. (all photos made by the author on 4 March 2018)