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March 2018 FLYPAST 7Debut fl ight for Great
War triplane replica
Fokker Dr.I Dreidecker reproduction G-DREI successfully took to the air in January following
nine years of development and construction work. The aircraft is painted to represent Dr.I
425/17, the triplane fl own by Manfred von Richthofen, the ‘Red Baron’, in 1917. ‘Echo-India’ fl ew
from Felthorpe in Norfolk, and is pictured on January 7. PHOTO-GRAHAM REEVEDefi ant completed for
display at RAF Museum
The RAF Museum’s Boulton Paul
Defi ant Mk.I N1671 has been fully
reassembled and placed on display
inside Cosford’s War In The Air
Hangar.
The Defi ant is the last survivingexample of its kind, and was built
by Boulton Paul at its Pendeford,
Wolverhampton factory in 1938. Flown
by 307 (Polish) Squadron, which
became operational in December
1940, it was painted in an all-black
night-fi ghter scheme the following
January and carried out 15 patrols
before moving in June 1942 to
anti-aircraft co-operation unit 285
Squadron, its last operational user.
Set aside for preservation in 1944,
it was placed on display (initially
at St Athan, Wales) in 1960. It was
comprehensively restored by the
Medway Aircraft Preservation Society
at Rochester Airport from 2009
before being returned to RAF Museum
Hendon for further display in 2012.
The aircraft was transported to
Hendon’s sister site at Cosford,
Shropshire, in November 2016, due
to the former undergoing signifi cant
development. It was accompanied
by Gloster Gladiator Mk.I K8042 and
Westland Lysander Mk.III R9125. The
Gladiator had been at Hendon sinceThe reassembly of Boulton Paul Defi ant
Mk.I N1671 has been completed at Cosford.
COURTESY RAFMUS-based Lockheed 12A Electra N
has been acquired by Luc Hellings and
will be fl own to its new home in Belgium
in April.
The aircraft, which appeared at
Duxford’s Flying Legends Air Show in
2016, will be based at Genk-Zwartberg
alongside Luc’s T-28B Trojan N1328B. It is
one of only nine airworthy examples of
its type in the world.
Built at Lockheed’s Burbank, California
plant in December 1938, it was delivered
to the Continental Oil Company for which
it fl ew until 1950. It then passed through
the hands of several businesses, before
ending the fi rst phase of its fl ying ‘life’ at
a skydiving club.After a period of storage in San Marcos,
Texas, the aircraft was acquired by Pat
Donovan in 1989. After three years of
restoration work, it fl ew again in 1992 and
attended several airshows in the US.
Pat emigrated to New Zealand in 2003,
and based his Electra on the South Island
until 2010 when he moved back to the US.
Now named Ilsa, after a character played
by Ingrid Bergman in 1942’s Casablanca,
the aircraft was based at Moses Lake in
Washington where it will remain until it
begins its journey to Belgium.
Luc hopes to present the Electra at
several airshows in Europe this year, and
plans to fl y it in formation with his T-28.
WITH THANKS TO PETER STAMSLockheed 12A Electra N14999 has been
acquired by a new owner.
COURTESY LUC HELLINGSLockheed Electra on its
way to Europe