f . / .. / Aviation Historical Society OF Australia annual subscription £A1 : 10 : 0 Registered in Australia for transmission by post as a periodical ■ VOL. V No. 1 JANUARY 1964 EDITORIAL At the end of each year it is customary for the retiring Editor-in-Chief to give acknowledgement to the members who have assisted in the preparation and dis­ tribution of the AHSA Journal, Very few members are aware of the amount of work required to produce the Journal and it is with considerable pleasure that the Editor thanks the following for their efforts in 1963 j- Neil Follett for preparation of the Monthly Notes section and printing photo­ graphs with Garry Field for the photopagesj John Hopton for preparation of the Article Section and Index and Graham Hayward and his brother for distri­ bution of the Journal, The Journal is printed by Hr, Mai O'Brien of Rowprint Services and the photo- page'by J.G.Holmes Ltd*each have consistently supplied high quality work and have contributed to maintaining the standard of the Journal. The members whose names have appeared in the relevant issues for supplying notes and or articles together with the generous a-ssistancej from the Dep­ artments of Civil Aviation and Air and from the airlines, has made the work of the Editors much easier and is .deeply appreciatedo Without all of these contributions' there could riot be a Journal, Unfortunately it is not always possible for each member to devote the same amount of time to Journal preparation and due to this the Committee is always endeavouring to obtain regular assistance for this work from members, There seems to be a dearth of offers for this and it is largely for this reason that the present delay is due,■ Some thought has been given to transferring the Editor and Secretary positions to other States but ,it is not considered to be practical at this stage. As a partial solution the Secretary has assumed the role of Editor-in-Chief and intends to closely follow the standard set by the retiring Editor, hoped that members will continue to support the work of the editorial staff by submitting worthwhile and self’-explanatory items for the Journal, ♦ • A.H.S.A. Journal - 2 January 1964 \ The Mexican Government has given Qantas permission to operate up to three services per week between Sydney and Mexico. Qantas has the option of operating to Acapulco, Mexico City or Merida. Also it was reported during January that Qantas was neg­ otiating for early delivery positions on the production line of the French Concorde and the American supersonic airliners. On 29.1. it v/as officially announced that TAA would purchase two Beechcraft Queen AirS' for their intra-state services in Tasmania and Qu­ eensland. Negotiations have been made concerning the charter of a Queen- Air to replace the DC-3, VH-TAJ,which inaugurated the Tasmanian services on 28.1. VH-TAJ arrived in Tas. late in Dec. to carry out scenic flights in conjunction with the Sydney - Hobart yacht race. Since then it has been used for crew training and route faimiliarising flights. The aircraft is also operating the Hobart - Launceston service while the latter is closed to Viscounts due to re-construction work. The Sydney freight company of IPEC — Interstate Parcel Express Com­ pany-announced during January that it planned to operate an Australia­ wide freight airline. The company already operates a Melbourne - Hobart air-freight service with chartered DC-3s, VH-BAA and VH-BAB, owned and operated by Brain and Brown Airfreighters Ltd. The company also announced its intention of applying to the Federal Government for a licence to im­ port a British cargo aircraft. A contract has been let to prepare Melbourne Airport for Boeing 72? aircraft. The works include the lengthening - by 200 ft.t- and the stren­ gthening of the east-west runway and the widening and stengthening of taxiways. Some sections of the north-south runway will be smoothed. On 3.1 two Bell 47G helicopters, VH-HTA and VH-UTB owned by Helicop­ ter Utilities, landed oiboard the polar ship 'Nella Dan* in Melbourne. The helicopter's main task will be to find a path for the 'Nella Dan' should pack ice block the way on the way to Wilkes Base in the Antarctic, On 31.1. after returning from theAnbahctic onboard' the 'Nella Dan' VH-UTA and UTB flew from Fremantle to Perth Airport where after the re­ both flew north— moval of their flotation gear and light maintainence 9 ’ one to the Port Hedland area and the other to Darwin. On 5.1. two Aeroflot Ilyushin IL~l8 aircraft, GCCP-75743 and CCCP- 75845, arrived in Sydney carrying Russian scientists from the AntarctiOj via Christchurch, New Zealand. The aircraft continued on the route to Moscow on 7.1. South African Airways DC-7B, ZS-DKF, was delayed at Cocos Ipland for several hours on 26.1. as a result of a runaway propellor whilst fly­ ing between Mauritius and Cocos. The aircraft was carrying 50 paspengers and a crew of 15, and was being battered by storpy weather when the trou^ ble started. A DC-4 was sent out from Cocos to escort the DC-7B '; to Cocos where repairs were carried out. A.H.S.A. Journal - 3 - January ISSh At Avalon (Y±c.) on 29.1. fcooks of the first Mirages to be assembled in Australia were officially handed ^ over to the Minister for Air, Mr. Fairbairn, by the Minister for Supply, Mr. Fairhall. The Prime Minister, Sir Bobert Men- zies, was also present at the ceremony. The Mirage A5-1 was flo?/n to Darwin early in January for the commencement of its tropical trials. A Canberra, a Herc­ ules and fifty men are taking part in the trials which are expected to last six to eight weeks. Seven Army helicopters took part in an Army field exercise ^.t Puck- apunyal (¥ie.) during January. The exercise, Operation High Hope^, comm­ enced on 24,1. and lasted four days. Five of the aircraft, Bell 47G-25S, AI-.562, -565, -567, -570, and Bell 47G-2A AI-66O flew down from, Amberley, and wez“e noted passing through Tamworth on 17.1 when, rsfuellin.&' The other two helicopters in the exercise were Bell Iroquois from Canberra, The Minister for Supply,Mr. Fairhall, announced in' early Jan,^ that the tJ.S. Navy had signed a contract for the use of the jindivik pilotless jet target aircraft. The contract, said to be worth about £1 million, follows a series of evaluation, ti-ials hj the HSN la.st year. Australia has already sold Jiadiviks to Britain and Sweden. BREVITIES ; (1) One of MMA's-Fokker Friendships has■ i been fitted with an engine synchronisation system. Known as a.n Auto.matic E.P.M. Synchronisation In- stallation, the system reduces cabin noise to a minimum by keeping the propellors at exactly the same E.P.M. , thus reducing re.sonant vibration. (2) In W.A. on 24.1. a commercial pilot, T.C. Huggett, vias fined £35 for flying a single seat Piper Pawnee from Beverley to Jandakot airfie^-d with a passenger on his knee. The- offence took place on 14,10.63, Early last year, 'somewhere in Vic.', two men were seen to disembark from a Piper Pawnee soon after it landed - one from the cockpit, and che ooher from the hopperS (5) On 24.1. Martin B»57Bi 62-1502, a weather reconnaissance air­ craft from Avalon (Vic,) visited Adelaide airport for three minutes. It is believed that the aircraft stopped route to Perth to pick up flight plans. Another weather recce. Martin B-57 , 63=^827, was noted at Perth on 29,1. (4) A number of RAAF aircrews and technicians left Australia during January to start a conversion training course in Canada on the Dellaviland Caribou, Also during tne month a party of EAaF ground crew left for Canada and the USA for training in conjunction with the Doppler* radar navigat- ion aid -■ soon to be fitted to the RAAF's Hercules. (5) Six parachutists equalled a world record and set an Australian record at .. Pakenham East (Vic.) on 50.1. by passing a baton between them durSnor a 60 second free-fallfrom Beech 18 'FID. between 12,000 and 4000 ft 0 Contributions to the monthly notes in this issue have been made^by; Norm Weeding, Brian Hay, Ern Flanders, Alistair Goutts, Erxc Allen, Rich^ ard Hourigan, the SA.AJ lMA*s Jetstream^. Bon Gibson, Chris 0*leill and John . Hoptorie A«H.S,A. Journal _ 4 „ January 1964 AUSTMLIAK AIECEAFT RESTOEATIOK GEOUP The AARG was formed in March 1962 with the object of restoring and preserving aircraft and associated items in Australia, At present the Group's activities are concerntrated in Victoria and to date controls (by ownership or by long term loans) the following aircraft Avro Anson VH-FIAj CAC Wackett-Trainer VH-AGP ex A3-167, CAC Wirraway A20-10, DH Gipsy Moth VH-URV ex A7-79, DHA Tiger Moth "VH-TAA", ex VH-AQMj A17-3775 DAP Beaufighter 21 A8-3285 Gloster Meteor T,7 A77-707 ex 1H118 and two GAG Boomerang fuselage space frames. These aircraft are in storage, dismantled, until the Group can obtain a perm­ anent area for their display. SOGIETY OF LIGMSED AIRGEAFT ERGIMEEES, AUSTRALIA, EESTORIRG QAHTAS EQUIPMENT, Qantas Empire Airways will, in future years, build a museum at Mascot to house items having historical importance to the Gon^janjr's development, Included will be an Avro 504K (on long term loan from the War Museum at Ganberra), numerous engines, various instrument panels and other items from early Qantas aircraft.