Aviation News — September 2017

(Rick Simeone) #1
A rare Hawker Hurricane I, P2902, recently
made its debut at Duxford’s Flying Legends
Airshow, 77 years after it crash-landed on
a French beach. The aircraft returned to
the sky on June 19, and after several more
successful test  ights appeared at the
famed Duxford show.
Having been recovered and brought to
the UK for rebuilding the 1939-built  ghter
was registered G-ROBT by then owner
Rick Roberts on September 19, 1994
and underwent lengthy work with Hawker
Restoration before being acquired by Anglia

Aircraft Restorations in 2016.
Originally allocated to 245 Sqn it  ew
patrols over Dunkirk and the Channel
during Operation Dynamo – the evacuation

of British forces from northern France in
1940, and was shot down on May 31 while
being  own by 19-year-old Plt Off Kenneth
‘Mac’ McGlashan.

Australian Amphibian Advances
Steady progress is being made on the
restoration of Consolidated PBY5-A
Catalina 48412 by the Rathmines Catalina
Memorial Park Association, located near
Lake Macquarie in New South Wales,
Australia.
The complete nosewheel assembly,
including the gear doors, has been removed,
along with most of the internal components

in the cockpit, such as the control column
and rudder pedals. The items will be
cleaned, replaced or repaired as necessary.
The team is also working on the rear
fuselage around the blister compartment.
A set of blister rotating sections has been
acquired on loan to use as a template in
creating authentic looking versions for the
project. The tail section and elevators are

being reskinned, and volunteers have been
cleaning the wing centre section prior to
restoration.
The port engine is currently in Edinburgh,
South Australia, where it is being worked on
by RAAF personnel. The Rathmines group
is still looking for one pilot’s seat, a seat
for the engineer’s position and corrugated
walkway components for the rear hull.

Having been rescued from a South African
scrapyard in the 1990s, this Canadian-built
Supermarine Spit re IX, TE924, recently
made its  rst post-restoration  ight from
Gatineau, Quebec in the hands of John
Aitken. The  ghter has been restored by

Vintage Wings of Canada, after initial work
by the Comox Air Force Museum in British
Columbia. It represents MK304 ‘Y2-K’, the
aircraft  own by RCAF 442 Sqn’s Flt Lt Arnold
Roseland, who completed 117 Spit re  ights,
around half of them in Y2-K.

PRESERVATION


20 Aviation News incorporating Jets September 2017

Spit re IX TE924 is airworthy again after a lengthy restoration. Peter Handley-VWOV

Canadian Spitfi re Airborne


IN BRIEF


BEECH TURBO BARON 56TC FACh 471 is to
be restored by Chile’s Museo Aeronáutico of
Los Cerrillos for its collection. The aircraft has
been in storage at its facilities since 2006. It
originally served with Chile’s Directorate for
Civil Aviation (DGAC) from 1968 before being
sold into private hands in the 1980s. It will be
repainted into DGAC colours. Álvaro Romero
A former Spanish Air Force DASSAULT
MIRAGE F1M C.14-14/14-08 has been given a
special paint scheme at the Academia Básica
del Aire in León, Spain, to mark the unit’s
25th anniversary. The former Ala 14  ghter is
currently used as an instructional airframe.
As well as tail n art, it also has the dates
‘1992-2017’ stencilled onto the fuselage.
Roberto Yánˇ ez
A CESSNA 310J T-12, previously on display in
Morón, near Buenos Aires, Argentina, has been
donated to the country’s Flight Personnel and
Aeronautical Technicians Training Centre for
use as an instructional airframe. The Cessna
originally  ew as N3160L before operating in
Argentina as LV-PDQ and LV-IOI. Esteban Brea

Hurricane


Returns to


the Sky


Stu Goldspink taking off in Hawker Hurricane I P2902 from Elmsett, Suffolk on July 3. Darren Harbar

Spitfi re for Arizona’s Pima Museum
A Supermarine Spit re XIVe has gone
on display in Tucson, Arizona. The
 ghter, MT847, is well known to British
enthusiasts, having been at Manchester’s

Museum of Science and Industry from
1995 until 2014. It  rst  ew in April 1944
and operated with maintenance units,
operational conversion units and the

Aeroplane and Armament Experimental
Establishment at Boscombe Down,
Wiltshire, prior to retirement in 1952.
With thanks to Meghan Marum

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