SAAM Newsletter June 2016 - South Australian Aviation Museum

Props & mags
JUNE 2016
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN AVIATION MUSEUM
66 LIPSON STREET, PORT ADELAIDE
P.O. BOX 150, PORT ADELAIDE, SA 5015. PHONE (08) 8240 1230
http://www.saam.org.au
PRESIDENTS REPORT
This Report is presented on behalf of our President, Pieter Van Dyk,
who is currently in Oakey in Queensland with Steve Nitschke and two
other volunteers – Steve’s friend Steve Kristofic who went up with
them from Adelaide, and David Geck who joined them from QAM,
reducing the Caribou to a size where it can be transported to
Adelaide. They have been at this task consistently for the past two
weeks in occasionally wet, cold and generally nasty conditions.
This has entailed:
· Removing the outer wings;
· Taking off the fin and rudder plus the horizontal tailplane;
· Removing the rear section of the fuselage to enable the rest
of the fuselage to be fitted on a low loader for the trip back to Steve Kristofic, Pieter van Dyk, David Geck and
Steve Nitschke
Adelaide;
· Placing the remainder of the aircraft on jacks and retracting
the undercarriage transportation; and
· When all that was done there was the major task of preparing a frame to transport the wings and tailplane
and getting all the parts packed into a 40’ container.
Doing all this when you are a long way from your home base and in far from perfect weather conditions is a big
task and we owe the team a great deal of thanks for their effort.
Queensland member Neville Mason has also assisted with a
route survey trip and driving a truck with the engines and
props from Oakey to Adelaide. We also offer our thanks to
Neville for all his help.
On the home front we have being working to arrange all the
permits and transport to bring the main fuselage from Oakey
to Adelaide via the Strzelecki Track - no easy undertaking due
to the width of the load and all the regulations that are
involved. We have been greatly assisted here by John
Holmes – a strong Museum supporter with years of
experience with heavy and difficult loads.
S.A.A.M.
COMMITTEE
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY ….
SATURDAY 18th JUNE
_____________
MUSEUM PATRON:
THE HON. ALEXANDER DOWNER
AC
_______________
PRESIDENT
PIETER VAN DYK
VICE PRESIDENT
DAVID BYRNE
TREASURER
JOHN HILLIER
SECRETARY
MIKE MILLN
COLLECTION MANAGER
PAUL DAW
10.30am History Group Meeting
12 noon B.B.Q. Lunch – Cost $5.00
1.00pm General Members Meeting
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING : Tuesday 5th JULY
The transportation of
the Caribou fuselage
has been delayed due
to the condition of
the roads in the north
of the state. Once
these have dried out
the Caribou fuselage
will be on is way.
In the meantime it is
normal activities at
the
Museum
–
visitors, tours and a
Wedding. This with all the normal workshop activity plus having the new
Solar Panels installed has seen a steady stream of activities going on.
COLLECTION
MANAGER – AIRCRAFT
WAYNNE LEE
There has been some good news about the new hangar. We have finally
received Council Approval for the construction to start, and work will be
able to commence in the near future.
MEMBERSHIP OFFICER
ROD KOPP
More good news was received when we heard long time member Alan
Killmier has been awarded an OAM for his services to gliding and aviation.
All members who know Alan will see this as well deserved recognition for
his years of dedication to aviation – particularly gliding and the history of
aviation in SA.
WORKSHOP MANAGER
GRAHAM BELL
PUBLIC RELATIONS
ROBIN De VORE
David Byrne
VICE PRESIDENT
NOTE FROM THE “CANBERRA BOYS” ..
Many thanks for all the donations of spanners etc., we now have ample
sufficiency. Also a special thank you goes to Jeff Hann for the tool box
he donated containing relevant tools.
2
JOHN BATES 1930 – 2016
Recently we lost John after a serious illness with a
leg infection.
John was born in England and migrated to Australia
in the 1950s where he gained employment in the
technical area of aerospace development.
He has been a member for more than twenty years,
during which he served as our Treasurer for some
time. He also manufactured parts due to his skill
with a lathe and milling machine – both of which he
had at his house. John had considerable self-taught metal work skills. Until very
recently he had been regularly ringing the Museum to ask if there were any jobs that
needed to be done. We tried very hard to keep him busy and despite not being able to
come to the Museum he continued to maintain his interest and support the Museum
in the way he knew best.
We discovered at his funeral that he
spent considerable time in hospital as a
child with his hip problem, something
he had to live with all his life. He was an
independent individual who despite his
problems found ways to do things in his
usual innovative manner. His resilience
was inspiration to us all and much
admired.
My thanks to all those who made the time to attend his funeral service – it was much
appreciated as we farewelled a strong supporter of the Museum.
3
ALAN KILLMIER OAM
Alan has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the
Queen’s Birthday Honours for service to aviation, particularly to
gliding, and the community. We are all very proud of him and offer
him our heartiest congratulations.
The award is richly deserved. Alan has spent a lifetime in service to
the community through volunteerism. He managed this, until he
retired, while running a highly successful accountancy practice. As
far as aviation goes, he is living aviation history himself – from his
RAAF service training as aircrew just too late in the war to receive
his wings, as a founding member and the first Secretary of the Soaring
Club of South Australia (which became the Adelaide Soaring Club),
through his 1968 distance gliding record with Harry Schneider, his
service as Secretary of the Royal Aero Club of South Australia from
1949 through to 1976, his membership of the RAAF Association
since 1945 and his service as Secretary and Vice President of the
Mitcham Branch 2009-2013 – and of course his immense
contribution to our museum.
Alan has been a member here since 1998 and it wasn’t long after joining that he first established our library with
a gift of several hundred books from his own collection. He negotiated the gift of hundreds more from the
National Motor Museum and from other members’ collections; he was instrumental in gaining our $26,000 grant
from the RAAF Association to tool up for the Fairey Battle restoration; he got us the Sheppard CS2 through his
ex-RACSA associations; and he was elected to the committee in 2001 and served as Secretary from 2003 to
2007 and as assistant curator, librarian and newsletter editor. He quickly established himself at the museum as
an authority on aviation history, which has been his life-long passion, through his extraordinary depth of
knowledge and prodigious memory for detail. It was he who established our filing system for documents of
historical significance and constantly added to it with his own research material. In 2005 he was instrumental in
the formation of our History Group, which has been such a mainstay of the museum and has produced so much
valuable work since.
He was honoured with the award of Life Membership in 2014.
Thank you, Alan.
Mike Milln, on behalf of the entire membership
WELCOME NEW
MEMBERS
Left Clem De La Perrelle of
Banksia Park
Right Jim Hanson of
Plympton Park
4
WING TIPS
PRESSING ON
With the fabric season over due to the onset of the winter
months we are taking a break from fabric work on the
Anson. But with a few degrees of warmth from some mobile
flood lights we are putting the fabric on the rudder of the
Cessna C1.
This example of a C1 was built from “spare parts and
anything else that resembled an airframe”. The rudder is a
good example. There are three different gauges of tubing in
its perimeter instead of the usual two. The control horn
looks exactly like it came from a Piper aircraft, possibly a
Pawnee. With a bit of careful fabric installation we can
make it look like a replica of a replica!
We are also keen to do some spray painting on the CS 2
Sheppard wings which are ready for the spray coats. We
need a clean, dry and preferably warm shed to accomplish NEW RIBS BEING FITTED TO CESSNA C1
this, so if you have one in your backyard and live nearby, give
us the nod.
The Canberra boys are still looking for Whitworth spanners
and some have already come to light. If you are rifling your
tool box and see spanners with 2 dimensions on the same
end, you’ve hit paydirt.
The suffix to the dimension will be W for Whitworth and BS
for British Standard. How the same size got two different
names will be explained at another time. A hint is that Mr
Whitworth was not going to be pushed around by the
government and other tool makers in the United Kingdom
CESSNA C1 ELEVATORS BEING
PREPARED FOR ETCH PRIMING
The smaller nuts and bolts on early English aircraft, those
below ¼ inch diameter, are probably BA which is British
Association. If you find any BA spanners you’ve hit the
mother lode as they are very scarce.
Over and Out
Anson Crew
5
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN AVIATION MUSEUM
SIGNIFICANT AVIATION DATES AND EVENTS
Nigel Daw’s Timetable of Significant Aviation Events has been on our website for a few years so it’s high time we
published it in the newsletter. We have split it into two parts, so next month we will feature 1926-1945. Nigel
has asked for feedback on any significant events you feel should be added, including for the period after 1945
that he is yet to write, so please contact Nigel with your suggestions.
TIMETABLE OF SIGNIFICANT SA AVIATION DATES AND EVENTS 1871 – 1924
1871
The first recorded aerial ascent in SA occurred in June 1871 with a flight in a coal gas filled balloon, piloted by
Thomas Gale. The balloon flew from the sheep and cattle markets near the corner of North and West Terraces
Adelaide, to a point some twelve kilometres north east.
1909
During 1909 Adelaide businessman Frederick H Jones travelled to Europe as part of his importing and exporting
enterprise. During this trip he visited many airfields where flying was taking place to find a suitable aircraft that
he could purchase and take to South Australia. He aimed to display and demonstrate the aircraft and sell it to an
interested party. Jones was
impressed with the Bleriot and
purchased one.
1910
On 3 February 1910 the Bleriot XI
(construction number 37) monoplane
arrived at Port Adelaide on board the
steamer Schwaben. After being
transferred to the docks it was
transported by horse and cart to the
premises of John Martins in Kent
Town, just to the east of the city. This
Bleriot was of all wood construction
with a fully braced-wing. It was the
first aircraft to utilise the type of
primary flight controls that most pilots are familiar with today, that is, a control column on the cockpit floor
(which is used for both longitudinal and lateral control), and a foot-operated rudder bar for directional control.
The backward and forward motion of the control column operated the elevators on the tail of the aircraft that
caused the nose of the aircraft to rise and fall respectively. The side to side motion of the control column
operated the wing warping system.
The undercarriage incorporated shock absorption, which was achieved by a pair of legs that had stiff coil tension
springs. Bungee rubber cords were used on later models. Wire spoked wheels were fitted. The power was
supplied by a 25hp three cylinder Anzani engine which drove a two-bladed wooden propeller. The fuel tank was
made of brass and was fitted just behind the engine. The wings were made of fabricated ash and spruce with
two spars and ribs being braced with stranded wire cable. They were covered on both upper and lower surfaces
with unbleached cotton and then doped and varnished.
6
The fuselage was made of four spruce longerons with vertical and horizontal spruce members spaced down the
length of the fuselage. The forward section of the fuselage was fabric covered. The tailplane, elevator and rudder
were also timber structures and covered in fabric.
After the Bleriot arrived in Adelaide Mr Jones employed Carl Wilhelm ‘Bill’ Wittber to supervise the assembly and
rigging of the aircraft, running the engine and overseeing flight tests. Bill Wittber was born in Salisbury, then a
small township just north of Adelaide, on 7 December 1879. After finishing school at the age of fourteen, Bill
continued his education at the School of Mines (later to become the University of South Australia) and was later
apprenticed to Ellis & Clark, Electrical Engineers. This led to a life at sea and it was during this time he started to
take an interest in aviation.
A third person became involved with Fred Jones and Bill Wittber—a man by the name of Frederic Cyril Custance.
Custance offered his services free of charge and Jones accepted his offer. Frederic aged twenty years was born in
1890 near Ongar, Essex, England, and moved with his family to Australia in 1906. Prior to working on the Bleriot,
Custance had been working for a firm of motor engineers in Adelaide.
After a period of storage in the John Martins stables at Kent Town the Bleriot was moved to Eyes & Crowle in Pirie
Street, where Wittber was then employed. The Bleriot was assembled and rigged for display. It was later
disassembled, transported to John Martins store in Rundle Street, reassembled and placed on display. Thousands
of people visited to see this new flying machine. During this time Fred Jones was scouring Adelaide for a suitable
site from which to have the Bleriot flown. In early March 1910 a paddock in Bolivar on the corner of Whites and
Shepherdson Roads was deemed suitable, and negotiations with the owner, Mr Albert Winzor, were successful.
On 12 March 1910 the Bleriot was moved from John Martins after being crated to Bolivar where it was
reassembled. This time the aircraft was prepared for flight testing.
First attempts to taxi the aircraft on Sunday morning, 13 March 1910 were dashed, as the weather conditions
were unsuitable. However, later in the day conditions improved and Bill Wittber undertook the first taxiing trials
with various throttle settings. Fred Custance was also given an opportunity to taxi the Bleriot and learn the effects
of the controls. Later that day Wittber had another attempt and with 50% to 60% power the aircraft rose
approximately five feet off the ground and travelled for about forty yards before landing. This was reported in the
newspaper The Register of Monday, 14 March 1910. It was, by definition, a powered, sustained and controlled
flight. There were many witnesses to this ‘hop’.
Weather conditions for flying did not improve until the early morning of Thursday, 17 March 1910. As this was a
normal working day Bill Wittber was at work at Eyes & Crowle. Jones and Custance had arisen at 3 am to travel to
Bolivar where, at dawn, they took the Bleriot out of the marquee. The engine was started with Custance at the
controls. From here reports of what occurred vary greatly. The Register newspaper the next day stated “ Mr.
Custance made his first attempt to raise the airship from the ground...........After covering about 18 yards the
machine rose 12 feet in the air, and at this height made a circuit of the paddock thrice, a total distance of about
three miles, in five minutes and 25 seconds.” The report continued, “This, it may be remarked created several
records. It was the first airship flight in South Australia, the first monoplane flight in Australasia and the Australian
duration record.” This would be, without doubt, an extreme case of journalistic exaggeration, particularly if the
journalist concerned—and there is no way of verifying this—wrote his own copy. There were no journalists
present for the Custance flight and accident and so the journalist who wrote the article was relying on reports
from other witnesses.
In fact Jones stated to Wittber later on 17 March that, indeed, Custance did taxi around the paddock about three
times before a first “very wobbly” straightforward flight of about one minute, ending with a “very rough landing”.
The only people known to have been at the site on that Thursday morning to witness Custance’s flight were Jones,
Albert Winzor, the owner of the property, and a Mr and Mrs Sawyer who lived nearby.
7
Custance made a further flight on 17 March (against the
wishes of Jones) in an attempt to create an Australian
record, had taken off, risen steeply into the air and then
crashed, causing damage to the propeller, undercarriage
and wheels. Custance escaped only bruised and shaken,
having hit his head on the petrol tank. The damaged
aircraft was returned to Adelaide and delivered to Duncan
& Fraser for repairs. In May 1910 the aircraft was
destroyed in a fire but the engine was recovered
Wittber continued on with flying and in 1911 he
commenced the design and assembly of a Farman type
pusher biplane. Construction was completed in 1913 and
flying was to take place at a property owned by a Mrs
Margaret Smith at Smithfield. It had been intended that a
25hp Anzani engine be installed in the aircraft but it was
realised it would not supply enough power. However, taxi
trials were undertaken by Wittber and his friend Harry
Butler from Minlaton. Wittber designed and built his own
six cylinder radial engine and after installation in 1915 taxi
trials started, followed by some ‘hops’ into the air. These
became higher and longer, but before they could move
into the next phase of their self-taught training, the
Government stepped in and banned them from making
any further attempts at flying. Sadly the aircraft was then disassembled and burnt.
Bill Wittber died on 26 March 1970 aged 90 and he is buried in the Payneham Cemetery, an Adelaide suburb.
The Wittber six cylinder engine is today preserved, and on display at the SA Aviation Museum Inc. 66 Lipson
Street, Port Adelaide (www.saam.org.au ).
1911
Mention Sir Douglas Mawson and some
people will instantly recognise his name
because of his association with Antarctic
exploration. Outside of South Australia.
only a small proportion of those people will
know he was a South Australian, a geologist
of world rank and a lecturer at the
University of Adelaide. Even fewer know of
his association with aviation. However, it
would be an overstatement to say he was a
pioneer aviator. He was a scientist at heart,
specialising in geology. His achievements in
the Antarctic were remarkable, not only for
what he and his team accomplished, but
because they were undertaken in a period
of history when the age of discovery with its explorers was declining, and the age of scientific discovery was
exerting its influence.
9
Mawson did not appear to have any particular interest in aviation. He simply saw the aeroplane as another tool of
trade with which to pursue his scientific goals. It is not clear when Mawson first saw the possible benefits of using
an aeroplane in the Antarctic. By October 1911 he had arranged the importation of a machine to Adelaide which
was a Vickers built R.E.P. Monoplane. The purchasing arrangements are unclear but it is known that Mawson was
in England in 1911 organising and recruiting personnel for the Australian Antarctic Expedition.
The Vickers No. 1 monoplane first flew on 28 March 1911 and the No. 2 monoplane was subsequently sold to
Mawson. It can only be assumed that Mawson visited the Vickers workshop during his stay in England and saw the
merit of experimenting with aircraft in the Antarctic. He did have the benefit of previous experience in the
Antarctic and was well aware of the conditions an aircraft would be subjected to. He had also experienced the
hardships (including sledging) and realized that an aircraft would speed exploration and, if used as a sledge, would
reduce physical hardships. Hindsight can now be used to prove that the use of aircraft in the Antarctic at that time
was premature, but the decision by Mawson to import an aircraft does show that he was a modern thinker, willing
to try new ideas. Whilst in the United Kingdom he also recruited Frank Wild, another Antarctic veteran, and Frank
Bickerton, an electrical engineer and motor mechanic. The aircraft subsequently arrived in Adelaide in October
1911 with its pilot, HE Watkins, and Bickerton and Wild. It was intended to be used for exhibition flights in
Australia to draw attention (and presumably sponsorship) to the expedition, and later for survey work in the
Antarctic. Unfortunately, the flying career of the R.E.P. was short, as it crashed on its second flight on 5 October
1911. It was subsequently repaired for use as an ‘air tractor’ and transported to Hobart where the expedition was
assembled. The wings remained in Australia.
The aircraft was shipped from Hobart on 2 December 1911 on the Aurora for the Antarctic. The wings were
subsequently offered to the Central Flying School at Point Cook in 1914 and their fate is unknown. In the
Antarctic, a main base was set up at Cape Denison. It was on this expedition that the ‘Mawson’s Hut’ was built.
The R.E.P. aircraft (minus wings) was transported ashore and placed in a makeshift hangar attached to the hut. Its
use as a tractor also seems to have been a failure due to the weather conditions and the engine seizing. The
aircraft was subsequently left behind in 1914 when Mawson returned to Australia. The aircraft was photographed
cemented in ice in 1975 but had disappeared by 1978 when an Australian National Antarctic Expedition (A N A R
E) visited the site. However, this was not the end of the story, as on New Year’s Day 2010 an Australian carpenter
stumbled on the remains of the aircraft at Cape Denison—its cast-iron framework revealed by an unusually low
tide and reduced ice cover. The remains of the aircraft have been brought to Australia with restoration work being
undertaken in Perth WA.
1917
On 23 November 1917 Graham Carey
(from Melbourne) undertook a special
flight when he flew a Bleriot Monoplane,
complete with a Le Gnome, 7 cylinder,
50hp rotary engine from a paddock at
Enfield (on what is now Regency Road) to
the Gawler Racecourse. He carried one
hundred souvenir postcards at 2/6 (25
cents) and ten letters, including one from
the Mayor of Adelaide to the Mayor of
Gawler. Despite rain
9
and bad weather Carey arrived at the Gawler Racecourse about 3.30 pm without incident but, finding no PMG
official present, had to hand the mailbags to an off-duty junior telegraph messenger named Walter Nelson to
take to the post office. The main reason for the flight to Gawler was that he had been invited by the Gawler Red
Cross Carnival, which had been organized to raise funds for providing comforts for World War I soldiers. The
Secretaries of the Carnival were Mr E A Smith and Miss
D H Ey. The aircraft was on display at the Gawler
Racecourse and did do some joy flights before
returning to Adelaide on Monday, 26 November 1917
with some more airmail, which primarily consisted of
souvenir cards.
1919
Harry Butler was born in 1889 in Yorketown, with
schooling at Koolywurtie where he shared the single
school teacher with about twenty other children. His
mechanical interest developed at a very young age and
he was soon tinkering with motor bikes including
building one of his own. When Bill Wittber was building
an aircraft near Smithfield Harry spent much time there
learning about aircraft.
During World War I (from 1916) Harry served in the
Royal Flying Corps where he won an Australian Flying
Cross. Initially he was an air mechanic but soon
received flying training and he became a flight
instructor in which role he remained until the end of
the war. He did see some active service over the
Western Front in order to learn new flying tactics to
teach his pupils.
After World War I he returned to SA and sought to
forge a career in aviation. He formed Harry J Butler & Kauper Aviation Co. Ltd and operated from a hangar at the
Northfield Aerodrome. On 6 August 1919 Harry flew the first airmail flight from Adelaide to Minlaton in his
Bristol M1C, which was known as The Red
Devil. He was welcomed by a large crowd,
estimated at 6,000. The flight carried an
eighteen kilogram mailbag full of
postcards and letters. Harry had a
significant headwind and had taken one
hour five minutes for the flight. There was
a large welcome by the crowd and
following various speeches there was a big
lunch. Letters had been sent from the
State Governor and the Mayor of Unley,
where Harry was living at the time. Joy
flights occurred in the afternoon followed
by a celebratory dance in the Minlaton
Institute in the evening. Harry had come
home.
10
Harry undertook a total of eleven mail-carrying flights during his short flying career. These included Scotland (in
the United Kingdom), Minlaton, Kadina, Adelaide, Victor Harbor, Jamestown and Murray Bridge. He also flew
from Unley Oval after trucking the aircraft in, as the oval was too small to land on. The crowd was estimated at
20,000 and they saw a great display of aerobatics. Sadly Harry crashed his Avro 504K at Minlaton on 11 January
1922 which resulted in substantial
injuries. He died on 30 July 1924 and
was buried in the North Road Cemetery
in Adelaide.
Following the cessation of hostilities at
the end of World War I the Australian
Government announced a £10,000
prize for the first Australians to fly from
the United Kingdom to Australia in less
than thirty days. Determined to be the
first to achieve the feat two South
Australian brothers, Ross and Keith
Smith, together with J M Bennett and
W H Shiers set out from the United
Kingdom in a Vickers Vimy on 12
November 1919, arriving in Darwin on
10 December.
The Vimy was an ordinary Vickers bomber similar to the one which Alcock and Brown had flown the Atlantic.
The only modification was the fitting of an extra fuel tank to give the aircraft a total endurance of thirteen hours,
flying at a cruising speed of 130kph. The route chosen would take them through France, Italy, Crete, Egypt,
Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Burma, Siam, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies and finally to
Darwin. Navigation aids consisted of a compass, a ground speed and drift indicator and, to quote Ross Smith’s
own account of the flight ‘their own flying experience’.
The weather forecast as they set out on that November morning could scarcely have been more ominous: class
V or totally unfit for flying. Small wonder that Ross Smith wryly interpreted the Vimy’s registration‘G-EAOU’ to
mean ‘God ‘Elp All of Us’. After their departure from Hounslow in snowy conditions the weather cleared over
the English Channel but soon deteriorated to unbroken cloud and more sleet and snow. The Hounslow to Lyon
sector
was
the
hardest of the whole
flight. They had
flown 850 kilometres
on a day officially
reported as unfit for
flying. At Pisa, Italy,
they lost a day’s
flying when the Vimy
became bogged. Off
the coast of Greece,
still in bad weather,
they
had
a
miraculous escape
when, after passing
through a low bank
of clouds, they almost flew straight into a rocky island. A last-minute manoeuvre saved their lives.
11
At Calcutta they had another narrow escape when they hit two hawks. Refuelling was the difficult part of the
whole trip during the necessary stops. Whilst Bennett and Shiers worked on the engines, Ross and Keith Smith
refuelled the Vimy from four-gallon tins, lifting and filtering through a chamois anything from half a ton of fuel
at every stop. Throughout the flight the crew never averaged more than five hours sleep a night and usually it
was nearer four.
Fighting always against the thirty day time limit, they pushed on day after day – to Rangoon, Bangkok, Singora,
Singapore, Kalidjati, Surabaya, Bima and Timor. Then came the challenging Timor Sea to Darwin, and Australia at
last. On 10 December at 2.06 pm the four weary fliers spied the Bathurst Island lighthouse, their first glimpse of
Australia. By 3 pm they were on the ground in Darwin, just twenty-seven days and twenty hours after leaving
the United Kingdom. They had won the race against time and the £10,000 ($20,000) prize. For winning the race
Ross and Keith Smith were knighted, and Wally Shiers and Jim Bennett each received the Air Force Cross.
After a tour of the eastern states the Vimy finally came to Adelaide on 23 March 1920 when it landed at the
Northfield Aerodrome. The Vimy was presented to the RAAF and languished in storage for many years pending
display. In 1957 the Vimy was refurbished and transported to Adelaide in early 1958 for eventual display at
Adelaide Airport. On 27 April that year the memorial building and the Vimy were unveiled by Air Marshall
(retired) Sir Richard Williams and the aircraft was officially handed back to the people of Australia. The Vimy
may still be seen today.
1921
In early 1921 Lieutenant Horrie Miller (ex-AFC) and Captain Kennedy (ex-AFC) came to Adelaide from Melbourne
with an Armstrong-Whitworth FK8 (C/N 1) for use in barnstorming. They operated under the name of
Commercial Aviation Company. One of their early flights was to Orroroo on 11 February 1921.
The aircraft concerned was G-AUCF Armstrong-Whitworth FK8 which had been registered to their airline,
On 28 June 1921. On 5 September 1922 the aircraft was sold to Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial
Services, Longreach.
Miller established operations in SA flying from the Harry Butler Albert Park Aerodrome when it was opened in
1922. Later that year an airmail contract was awarded to the Larkin Aircraft Supply Company of Melbourne to
operate the Sydney–Adelaide route. Subsequently the contract was transferred to a subsidiary entity, Australian
Air Mail Services Ltd (later renamed Australian Aerial Services Ltd).
1924
Due to a lack of suitable aircraft, the start of the Adelaide to Sydney air service did not commence until 2 June
1924, when a Sopwith Wallaby G-AUDU Bower Bird piloted by Lt F L Roberts with air mechanic E A Jones
departed Albert Park at midday carrying five bags of mail. The route was Adelaide–Mildura–Hay–Narrandera–
Cootamundra–Sydney, and the time allowed was twenty-four hours. This airmail service operated from Albert
Park until August 1929 when Larkin opened his own airfield.
Nigel Daw
SAAM History Group
May 2012
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VISIT TO FRENCH AIR FORCE BASE
TONTOUTA, NEW CALEDONIA
Among my more obscure aviation history interests is that regarding the aviation history of the French Pacific
territories. In regard to New Caledonia
I’ve long known that some VH
registered and French (“F”) registered
light aircraft were active in the territory
in the 1930s. However, when an
Australian military mission arrived in
early 1941 they found a handful of
primitive airfields but no aircraft
present. What had happened to them?
In answer to this question and more I
was thrilled to order the following
newly released book from a Paris
bookstore earlier this year: Aventures
Aériennes en Nouvelle-Calédonie
( “ A er i a l A d v ent u r es in N ew
Caledonia”).
The book was beautifully illustrated
with watercolours of every kind of
Cover of the Book
civil and military aircraft to operate in
the territory from the 1920s to the present day. How amazing that such a skilled aviation artist could be found in
tiny New Caledonia (population just 262,000) I thought? Subsequently I had some email exchanges with the
author of the book, Colonel Antoine Sadoux, who is also Commandant of the small French Air Force airbase at
Tontouta (base aérienne 186 “lieutenant Paul Klein”*). As the Colonel was being posted back to France in mid2016, I accepted his invitation to visit on Thursday 12th May.
The Colonel very kindly organised a half-day program at the base which included several Caledonians interested in
aviation and wartime history. The Australian Consul General also attended and translated for me as I don’t have
conversational French. Tontouta is of historical significance as it became a huge rear base for Allied forces in the
South Pacific during WWII. We were given a tour of an old runway and a swamp area where various wartime
artefacts have been recovered. Just a week beforehand an American radio in remarkably good condition had been
rescued from the swamp.
Today Tontouta serves as the main international
airport for New Caledonia. Because of the
mountainous terrain it is about 50km from the
capital, Noumea. On one side is the civil terminal,
while on the other side is the military base shared
by the Air Force and a small Aeronavale
detachment flying a couple of Dassault Gardian
jets used for maritime surveillance. The Air
Force has a small number of CASA CN235
transports and Puma helicopters. A couple of
Pumas were active during our visit. The Pumas
are over 40 years old but are apparently easy to
maintain in such a relatively remote environment.
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Watercolour of a Puma helicopter in New Caledonia
during a rescue operation.
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Much was learned during the visit (which I hope to write up at a later time). The stunning watercolours in the book
had been painted by a French Air Force Aviation Artist who had been especially sent to New Caledonia for the task (of
course the French Air Force has a fulltime aviation artist!).
I am grateful to Pieter van Dyke and Barry
Smith who enabled me to purchase some
SAAM souvenirs at cost to take along as gifts.
The Colonel and his pilots were proud
transport men, so they gratefully accepted the
older SAAM caps and mugs with the DC-3
logo ... they didn’t think much of the F-111!
The latter caps were accepted by the civilians,
however!
Right – Group photo at the base: myself (third from left), Australian Consul
General Paul Wilson (third from right), Colonel Sadoux (second from right) with
various Caledonian characters
Finishing a multi-course lunch in the officers’ mess (wine, cheese and baguettes visible!).
One of the original watercolours from the book can be seen on the wall.
Today Air Base 186 is named for Lieutenant Paul Klein. Klein flew an open-cockpit Caudron light plane from New
Caledonia to France in early 1939, a journey that took 57 days and 52 stops. Klein joined the Free French forces in
WWII and flew Blenheim bombers in the Middle East. He then joined the SAS and was involved in their long range
desert raids, and also became a paratrooper. While returning from a sabotage mission behind enemy lines when he was
captured by the Germans. Narrowly avoiding execution he was classed as a “dangerous individual” and imprisoned in
Colditz for the remainder of the war. Post-war he returned to live in New Caledonia. In his 80s he resumed
parachuting, celebrating his 100th birthday with a parachute jump! Klein passed away a few years ago at the age of
101. I don’t think they make them like that anymore ...
Peter Ingman
Chairman, SAAM History Group
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