Ahsa Nl 34.1
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NEWS Published by the Aviation Historical Society of Australia (Vic.) Inc. A0033653P, ARBN 092-671-773 Volume 34 Number 1 (Published February, 2018) Editor: Dion Makowski All images by editor unless otherwise credited email: [email protected] Website: www.ahsa.org.au (memberships available) facebook: look for us under Aviation Historical Society of Australia Aussie Bomber History Comes to Life During our visit to Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) in July 2017, NEWS noted how truly international the airshow really is, with attendance from literally everywhere but Europe being particularly well represented. We searched out Australian subject matter ‐ the RAAF had provided a single wedgetail AEW&C aircraft, serial A30‐006, but the most surprising attendee with an Aussie connection was of all things, an Avro Lancaster cockpit, spotted while crossing the expo paddock. I truly thought they had brought the cockpit of the real S‐for‐Sugar to RIAT! The most famous surviving Lancaster, is located in the RAF Museum, Hendon, and is a B.Mk 1 R5868 PO‐S "Sugar". The 27th Lancas‐ ter B.1 produced by Avro at Manchester, Sugar transferred from 83 Squadron, RAF Scampton (69 operations completed) to 467 Squadron RAAF, RAF Waddington, County of Lincolnshire, as a replacement for ED500 which had crashed returning from a raid. There, Sugar became the first allied bomber to reach her 100th operation and eventually completed 137 ops. Ted Willoughby, a WWII ground engineer on Lancasters with 467 Sqn RAAF, had worked on R5868 and had even created the famous nose slogan from the quote of Hermann Goering "No enemy plane will fly over the Reich territory". Post‐war, Ted tracked down this aircraft, having been selected for display as a gate guardian at RAF Scampton, then home to 83 Sqn flying Vulcans, hence its display there in 83 Sqn codes OL‐Q. (these days, RAF Waddington is the main operating base for airborne intelligence systems including the Sentinel R1, E‐3D Sentry, Airseeker, Shadow R1 and the Reaper MQ9A RPAS.) 1 He took his then 4‐year‐old son, Martin, to examine its condition. Decayed and neglected, all of the internal components had been removed for the flying PA474, to eventually join the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. Unlike the late‐to‐service PA474, already ear‐ marked for the RAF Museum, Ted was able to articulate the historical significance of the operational Sugar and he convinced the MoD to instead send her to the museum, allowing PA474 to continue a flying career to this day. Ted, with Martin assisting, restored Sugar to allow her display in pride of place in the Bomber Command Hall. Martin had grown up knowing the veterans, as well as Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris ("Butch" to the veterans of Bomber Command) and Sir Barnes Wallis. He joined the RAF and served operationally on logistics in Qatar under Operation Telic and Afghanistan (Op Herick), later with the RauxAF 600 (City of London) Sqn and in Air movements at RAF Brize Norton. Leaving the RAF, Martin joined a specialist defence logistics company, primarily supporting coalition forces in the middle east and Africa, including on Russian Il‐76TD freighters. During this time, he had the idea of creating an authentically‐built reproduction Lancaster cockpit, utilising existing parts and new‐ build structures informed by original blueprints and historical material and marked up as Sugar, to bring his unique experience of sitting in a Lancaster as an interactive exhibit to the general public. This is especially impressive in an era when such access is rare and usually, restricted. The cockpit would also allow the extraordinary story of Sugar to be told and commemorate the story of Ted and the men who maintained and flew the machines of war. Martin has traded across the world to collect the parts he needs, whether Lanc or Lincoln and had recently concluded a swap of parts with the Australian War Memorial. Unfortunately, just as the project began coming to fruition, Martin was diagnosed with leukemia. Supported by a small but dedicated team, Martin continues to work on the project as he receives treatment and is deter‐ mined to complete and display the cockpit. He has however slowed down somewhat but remains positive, a quality to which I can attest having met him just once... NEWS was given the opportunity to examine and photograph the advanced reproduction. Because the exhibit attracts such interest, it was early on Sunday morning before we were able to view inside this amazing creation. Martin, and his amazing wife Kim were interviewed, the tour given by Stewart, Cameron and Gary (who is also ex‐RAF) in the cockpit. The standard of restoration is exact‐ ing, having visited inside genuine Lancaster cockpits, this one cannot be easily differentiated from the real thing. AHSA appreciates the generosity of the Willoughby family and hope to help promote their work through this note. The family has produced a booklet "Lancaster "S" ‐ The story of Martin Willoughby's Lancaster PO‐S Sugar R5868 cockpit project", backgrounder for this article. Contact Martin directly at [email protected] President’s Comment The past year has been an interesting one. We managed to organise three tours for members. The first was to look over the Curtiss P‐40 Kittyhawk line of aircraft being rebuilt/built up by at Moorabbin airport. It is interesting to see how the P‐40 was constructed and is being reconstructed. The second tour was the visit to the Mahindra Aeronautics construction factory of the aircraft previously known as the Gippsland Aeronautics GA‐8 and now the GA‐10. We saw sheet metal entering the factory at one end and following the production seeing completed aircraft exit at the other end. The third and more recent tour was to the Graham Hosking Butler hangar of aircraft at Tyabb aerodrome. Graham has an interesting collection aircraft that were inspected with Graham acting as our excellent tour guide. (see aeroplane list elsewhere in this issue) Graham has the Ryan ST‐M that he had an altercation in earlier this year and is now hanging up from the roof looking rather sad. Graham has a collection of some 35 flying helmets ranging from leather to hard hat plus an aviation library second to none. It was a great tour visit. Future tours and trips like the above are in planning but will depend on member support. In others areas the committee has been gathering up previous copies of the journal, now known as Aviation Heritage, in order to put it on line when copied. It has not been any easy task. This is also a good time to thank Neil Follett for the great work that he does as our journal editor. Neil is always looking for articles to publish and appreciates having access to photo collections to match photos with articles. The AHSA attended the Australian International Airshow better known as the Avalon Airshow. There the AHSA had a better sited location. We gained 13 new members and some good publicity. Thanks very much to all those that assisted over the three days. 2 I am pleased that we now have the AHSA Qld. Inc as a stand alone organisation. Welcome aboard AHSA Qld. Inc. That means that there are now three AHSA organisations here in Australia including AHSA Inc (Vic.) and of course the long running AHSA NSW Inc. AHSA Qld. Inc would seem to have started at a running pace and has a good website and e‐newsletter up and running. Contact with members is always the way to unite those members and keep the aim in the same direction. For some time there had been an AHSA ‘branch’ running in Queensland but for several reasons including liability and the desire to get that group to stand alone the Queensland members bit the bullet and got their own organisation up and running. Well done. It would be nice to also think that all three bodies can assist each other and also contribute to the journal with written contribu‐ tions and photographs and other material. If the journal is our main attraction then let us all help to make it something that gives members the urge to be standing at the letterbox to receive the next issue. The elections may be over but we are still not running in cruise as I would like. We did not get any new hands put up to join the AHSA committee and we are still short of a Vice‐President and additional committee men. In short we have the same crew as the year 2016‐2017. It would seem that the average member it happy to just receive the AHSA journal, Aviation Heritage, and a newsletter four times a year. Did I forget a monthly meeting and perhaps an interesting speaker and time for a chat with mates. The current committee and a few dedicated helpers keep the show on the road. In recent times that work load has increased with various inbound re‐ quests asking the AHSA, meaning the committee, to get involved in this or that. Well I hate to say it but there are only so many hours in the day and days in the week that the committee has at its disposal. We are not a full time operation with an office, ware‐ house and paid staff to carry out all manner of requests. I for one wish that all that was the case. We do not have a ready room with a bunch of wise chaps sitting around waiting for the next task thrust their way to grasp and carry out, with credits of course to the party that suggested it.