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Scramble 468
With this Stearman Hammond Y, the museum has another extremely rare aircraft type within its walls. Maybe the average visitor will not
notice it, but the type stood for the period of transition from tail-dragger to nose-wheeled civil aircraft. In the days before World War II, KLM
was far-sighted in purchasing an aircraft in this configuration, convinced that these were the future. They were right!
was unsuccessful and decided to dispose the project in 2009. It
was then acquired by the ‘Friends of the Aviodrome’ destined
to be displayed in the Dutch museum. But after the museum
was sold to the Libema group, the ‘Friends’ decided to pass
on the project to the ‘Vliegtuig Compagnie’. Their volunteers
are now restoring N58147 to static condition.
Stearman Hammond Y-1S
The ‘Y’ is an all-metal twin-boom aircraft, with nosewheel
gear and pusher propeller. It can accomodate a crew of two.
The type has a place in our national aviation history, as it
was the first nosewheel gear aircraft to be ordered by KLM
in 1937. It was registered as PH-APY. KLM chairman Albert
Plesman had initiated the purchase of the aircraft, as he
wanted his crews to gain experience on nosewheel geared
aircraft. He had set his mind on acquiring the new Douglas
DC-4E for his airline and wanted his crews to be ready. The
prototype of this aircraft made its first flight on 7 June 1938.
The transition from Fokker taildraggers to the DC-4E would
indeed have been a giant step. But the new DC-4E turned out
to be too large for KLM, and after the prototype had crashed,
Plesman lost interest. He did order the smaller DC-5, but the
German attack on the Lowlands prevented their delivery.
Two of these DC-5’s went to the Netherlands West Indies and
two others to the East Indies. Eventually all four were used by
the East Indies airline, the KNILM. The Stearman Hammond
PH-APY was used by KLM until it was sold to the RAF in 1939.
As RAF R2676, the nose wheel configuration of the Stearman
was tested by the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough.
The aircraft was withdrawn from use in February 1942. A few
years ago, the Friends of the Aviodrome organisation bought
the remains of three Stearman Hammonds. Until recently
these were held in storage, but now NC15521 (306) which was
built in 1937, has been transported to the new museum. This
aircraft too, will be restored by volunteers of the ‘Vliegtuig
Compagnie’.
Bell 47
A Bell 47 project is also part of the new museum. It is based
on parts of Bell 47/OH-13 51-1374_ of which the engineless
fuselage and tailboom are present. The typical bubble cockpit
section is unfortunately missing. Most people identify this
helicopter with military use as could be seen in the M.A.S.H.
film and TV series. But less known, the type was used in Dutch
civilian service too. Schreiner Aerocontractors bought two
Agusta built 47G’s in 1959, registered as PH-HEN ( 246 ) and
PH-HEO ( 252 ). Both Bell were destined to be used for survey
work in Dutch New Guinea, but their performance under hot
and high conditions seems to have been disappointing. On
top of that PH-HEO was lost in the Antaris mountains on 14
July 1959. From 1962 to 1971 ‘Aero Ypenburg’ and later ‘NV
Luchtvaartmaatschappij General Aviation’ from Rotterdam
used two Bell 47G’s, the PH-AAG ( 1529 ) and PH-AAH ( 1708 ).
The former was licence built by Agusta in Italy, while the
latter was an original US built machine. Schreiner also used
a number of Agusta-Bell 47J Ranger helicopters, a version
with more enclosed cockpit and covered tailboom. They
operated PH-HEB ( 1041 ), PH-HEG ( 1004 ) PH-HEK ( 1003 ) and
PH-HEP ( 1116 ). The ‘HEK’ was used on behalf of the Iranian
Oil Company. Another civilian Agusta-Bell 47J Ranger was
PH-VAS ( 2076 ), acquired by Vascomij in 1964, but sold to ‘NV
Luchtvaartmaatschappij General Aviation’, which used it
from 1967 to 1972.
More than airplanes
The museum theme is transport in general, so other means
of transportation are also present. Historic military vehicles
are shown like the WWII Jeep, Dodge Weapon Carrier and
Halftrack. A recent arrival is a rare pre-war Landsverk M-38
armoured vehicle. A Dutch built 10 tons firetruck can be seen
next to an impressive Volvo truck. Civilian transport is rep-
resented by a collection of historic buses. And the collection
is rapidly expending: while we were there a collector offered
to show some of his DAF oldtimers in the museum.
Plans for the future
Currently the museum is not open to the public yet. The offi-
cial opening is planned for this month, with the exact date
to be published later. In the more distant future the museum
board of directors has ambitious plans. Within four to five
years the museum is to move to a new location, ‘PARK 21’, on
the recreational grounds located between the cities of Hoofd-
dorp and Nieuw-Vennep.
