Museums in the Port Sat 13th/Sun 14th October
Special pricing at all three Museums and special events!
Why not use free parking at the Aviation Museum…
and visit us first? Then you can catch the free bus
running between all the Museums and the Warf
every 20-30 minutes – or catch a historic train to
the National Railway Museum for $3!
Go to the events tab to download program, or just click on the image at left.
Aero 145 VH-ZCL was recovered from storage at Pallamana Aerodrome near Murray Bridge SA on 1 September 2018 and is now safely at SAAM. The aircraft had been dismantled for restoration by the donors, the Charlie Zululima Trust, which SAAM will now undertake, The fuselage (as pictured) is in our workshop and the wings, tail surfaces, engines, instruments and seats etc all in temporary container storage. We will advise further when we have a timeline worked out for this major restoration and assembly project.
The aircraft has rich South Australian provenance: it was purchased by John Doudy, who established Commodore Aviation, in October 1962 and registered as VH-WWC. Commodore based the aircraft in Port Lincoln where for many years it was used for tuna spotting and island lighthouse supply.
Our September newsletter is ready for download – just click on the front-page image at left, or go to the Newsletters tab on the Home Page to browse this and previous issues.
It’s another big issue with news from the President about the Aero 145 recovery from Pallamana/Murray Bridge and upcoming events; an obituary of Honorary Member Colin Watt OAM, DFM, Chev. LH (Fr); restoration updates on the Fairey Battle, Sheppard, Anson and Orion; more memories from Langdon Badger – this time of the Aero 145 in service; an absorbing profile of SQNLDR Robert Bungey DFC; and a RAAF History article on the delivery of the Avon Sabre.
Sit back and enjoy!
History Group Chairman Peter Ingman has just completed a profile of Robert Bungey DFC.
Bungey survived flying obsolete Fairey Battles in France with 226 Sqn, then Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain with 145 Sqn, before leading 452 Sqn (Spitfires), the first Australian fighter unit formed in Britain – only to die tragically back in Adelaide in 1943.
Peter’s profile of Bungey tells the story while also providing a fascinating snapshot of 452 Sqn tactics.
Just click on the image at left to download the profile, or go to the History Group tab on the home page to browse all the other interesting profiles available.
Our August Props & Mags is ready for download – just click on the front page image.
There’s lots of interesting reading: President David Byrne’s update on progress funding and carrying out the plethora of jobs going on around the Museum, the usual restoration updates, a snippet on WWII Pathfinder pilot David Leicester DFC & Bar who has just turned 95, all you ever wanted to know from the RAAF about badges versus crests (!), a retrospective on the huge project involved in the acquisition of DHC-4 Caribou A4-225 and a fascinating profile of Frank Briggs in WWI and thereafter. Enjoy!!
Chas Schaedel has written two new profiles in our Significant South Australian Aviators series: one under his “Brothers-in-Arms” theme on the Larkin brothers, and the other on Frank Briggs – largely forgotten but hugely significant.
You can download the profiles under the History Group/Pre WW II tab, or just click on the images – top for the Larkin brothers, bottom for Frank Briggs.
We’ve got a big issue this month – 20 pages of good reading…
The president updates all the functions we have coming up; Langdon Badger is at it again with tall tails of his “out landings’; we update you on what the restoration crews are up to; there’s an interesting story about what happened to one of Horrie Miller’s Curtis Seagulls; articles from RAAF History on the CA-15 Kangaroo and when they took the red out of roundels; and finally a profile by Peter Ingman of another of the EATS facilities in WWII South Australia – this time No 1 EFTS Parafield.
Click on the front page at left, put your feet up and have a good read!
SAAM is about to acquire Aero 145 VH-ZCL, donated by John and Marj Ellis and the ‘Charlie Zululima Trust’ that had dismantled it for restoration. SAAM will undertake the restoration and display the aircraft in due course.
It has huge South Australian historical importance – purchased originally by John Doudy, who established Commodore Aviation, and registered as VH-WWC in October 1962 then used for tuna spotting and lighthouse supply out of Port Lincoln until around 1979. John’s son, Chris Doudy, wrote a history of it in our last newsletter www.saam.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/PM-Jun18.pdf.
Our June newsletter is ready to download – it’s a sad issue with obituaries of two recently lost members and an In Memoriam of the anniversary of Paul Daw’s death in the Rossair crash last year, but there’s lots of interesting updates on what’s going on at SAAM as well. Just click on the image at left to download, or go to the Newsletters tab on the home page.
SAAM’s restoration of its Cessna CC-1 replica is complete. This is a replica of Clyde Cessna’s original 1911 design built by Rossair’s chief engineer Gordon Lewis from original design drawings for the 1966 National Air Show at Parafield and Edinburgh. Rossair was the Cessna dealership at Parafield and the replica was displayed as a promotional initiative. It was dismantled sometime after the Air Show and stored in a shed on the Lewis’s Gawler property until donated by Gordon’s family to SAAM in December 2016. The aircraft has been fully restored and rigged, and a replica Anzani 3-cylinder engine installed that was purpose-built for SAAM in Hungary.
It is one of only two replicas of the original aircraft in existence: the other being displayed by Cessna in the US.
You can read more about the aircraft here: http://www.saam.org.au/cessna-cc-1-replica/
