The Classic Air Show at Coventry made me cross the Channel again, but since my last visit a few years ago a few interesting developments had taken place in the UK and I decided to invest a few extra days to visit these. My first stop was at North Weald, where last year 2 Douglas DC-4s had settled down. These venerable Douglas transports had undertaken the crossing from the US, to take part in a movie about the Berlin Airlift. North Weald (near London-Stansted) is the homebase of Aces High, who buy or lease planes for use in movies and this little airfield positively oozes out history, every step you take here...

Douglas C-54D-DC N44914 (c/n 10630/361) looks really brilliant, while parked here at North Weald. It's decorated with a fake USAF serial: 44-42914.

N31356 is waiting to perform its starring role in the epic movie about the Berlin Airlift. The project however seems to have been delayed and ever since September last year the C-54s haven't flown, patiently waiting for the director to beckon them on stage...

J-P Lesueur sent me a photo taken on 06Oct04:

By Jan.2007 the Catalina still sat stored at Beauvais.
Bob Reid wrote me: "The PBY was a gift to the Israeli Air Force Association from Boeing, for the museum at Be'er Sheva. Boeing made the deal back in 1996 or there abouts. I was sent to purchase the aircraft from a chap in London.
After I bought the airplane Boeing had a severe cutback and their stock plummeted to around 29$ US. All non-essential projects were put on hold... The PBY languished outside in the weather at North Weald in the UK for the next 7 years.
Zvi Avidror finally convinced Boeing to take up the project again. However, it was under funded. Consequently when we took off for Israel and problems cropped up, there was not enough funding to complete the journey!
They still have not come up with the funds to complete the trip. I do not know what the status is now; hopefully some a benefactor will appear and help them out."
Bob also has this to say about Chuck Ellworth walking out on the ferry flight:
Chuck and his crew kept trying to run the left engine without oil pressure.. I fired him for that (and for other irregularities, no current medical and no US type rating as was required for my insurance..).
I had my own crew continue. Had Chuck paid attention to my mechanic and did what they were told to cure the oil pressure problem, I probably would have made it to Israel. Consequently, the damage was done and I lost the left engine enroute..."
"I went over in the fall of 2005 and helped change the engine, everything was ready to fly and we had even taxied out with full tanks to depart.. Then John Gasho noticed fluid coming from the left engine, it was a minor fuel leak and was fixed quickly. But while we sat there another little problem, with the ailerons rubbing on the trailing edge, was noted! Apparently it was left over windstorm damage which had been overlooked. We cancelled and had to quit as the weather was moving in.. we were out of the game for another season.. Bummer!"

On 27feb08 it (the fuselage at least) was reported travelling by truck on the A12 highway... Movement at last! Probably on its way to Antwerp to continue travel by sea to Israel.
Carl Gootzen got in his car, after a tip from his brother, and this roving reporter sent me this image:

PBY-5A Catalina N9521C (c/n 1656) is parked a little cramped in this hangar, but the news is good; Aces High is putting it through some last maintenance here, to sell it off again.
It dates back to WW2, as it was manufactured in 1943. It led a varied life as it worked as a military sub-hunter, private transport, fuel hauler and air display performer !

This Catalina was delivered as (BuNo)48294 to the US Navy (flew with VP-92 a.o.) over the Atlantic from its bases at Norfolk, New York but also from Casablanca and Port Lyautey in Marocco. Before it was retired from the service in 1953, it also flew for the US Coast Guard.
This Catalina went to civvie street as N9521C during the 1960s and served a succession of various owners. In 1978 it was to be found at Palmer in Alaska for Buddy Woods. It transported passengers to fishing sites (I'd take up fishing just for that !). Later its role was changed and started hauling fuel to remote places in Alaska; for this it was fitted with 1.500 US gallon flexible bagtanks.
It changed owners in Alaska when it was passed on to Catalina Flying Inc of Anchorage, which lasted from 1983 until 1987.
In 1987 it was bought by a Colombian outfit and it was seized by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) in Florida during late-1980s.
Gus Vincent bought N9521C and had it renovated at Santa Rosa in California. After restoration, Vincent sold it to Joe Tosolini and Guido Bonfiglio (who operated it from Malpensa in Italy). The ferry flight was made in May 1995. It made various presentations at air shows, mainly in Switzerland and Italy.
After only 2 years Bonfiglio sold it to G.Macpherson and it was flown to Lanseria in South Africa. During 1999 it left South Africa for the US, but stranded with engine problems in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It finally arrived at North Weald on 04Mar00. N9521C was advertised for sale with zero-time engines and 4.500 total airframe hours during the autumn of 2000. It remained at North Weald and was temporarily repainted as Catalina AH545/WQ-Z of 209 Squadron (RAF) for some aerial film work off the Essex coast.
FAA's N-database had it registered in March 2002 to Training Services Inc of Virginia Beach,VA. It left in July 2003 for the Fighter Factory in Virginia.
The Fighter Factory is an airplane restoration facility run by the Aviation Institute of Maintenance. It operates with a permanent staff of 8 craftsmen and mechanics. They operate many flying airplanes including a 1943 Vickers Supermarine Mark IX Spitfire, 1943 Hurricane MkXII, 1945 Corsair, 1949 Skyraider and many more. Other restoration projects are being completed, including a Messerschmitt Bf-109, B-25J and an A-26 Invader.
The Fighter Factory is located in Suffolk, Virginia and is part of the Aircraft Discovery Division of Aviation Institute of Maintenance, an aviation maintenance school located at the Norfolk,VA Airport.

Here are photos on Airliners.net which shows it in its new life...

 
The Beech on the left is fully airworthy and has a nice plush pullman interior. Obviously the Beech D18S on the right, N96240 (c/n CA-159), needs some work. I have very little on its history, found it was present at the Eindhoven Air Show in 1982 and that it was registered to Euroworld Miami Inc of Gainesville,FL on 03Apr92.

Below photo was made by David Bolton, early March 2007; click on the image for a large photo, you'll see improvements to N92640 definitely have been made!

Right next to the previous C-47 is another one. This is c/n 15056/26501, once registered as OT-CWA.
These C-47s were put to use quite recently, with the filming of the tv series "Band of Brothers".
As 43-49240 it did service in the India-China theatre in WW2. After the war it moved to Europe and was transferred to the Belgium Air Force (as K-1, radio callsign O-CWA) in 1946. During 1952 it was reregistered to OO-SMA and a year later OT-CWA. It saw service in the Congo from 1954 to 1960. In Dec73 it had reached the end of its usefullness and was stored at Koksijde. In 2000 it was located at Schaffen-Diest (small airfield in Belgium) and during 2001 it was transported to North Weald, to participate in "Band of Brothers".

During late summer 2007 this airframe was moved to the Wings Museum at Redhill; the cockpit of 42-100611 will be matted onto 43-49240 to create a walk through fuselage attraction for the museum where it is planned that the fuselage will stand testament to all those air crews who were shot down on the D- Day operations and information panels will record the names dedicated to their remembrance. 42-100611 saw service during World War II, but with her wartime service log being 'missing' it has been hard to track down her exact history and any help to throw some light on this wartime history and or photos would be gratefully appreciated.

The cockpit is in even worse condition.

During Sep.2007 it moved to Redhill:
"During late September ex North Weald based C-119 cockpit section was rescued from the threat of potential scrap by members of the Wings Museum which is based at Redhill Aerodrome in Surrey. The relic became threatened by ongoing pressure from the local council to 'tidy up' the outside aprons around the hangers at North Weald Aerodrome.
The effort and cost involved in moving these relics was certainly not for the faint hearted! But members of the Wings Museum stepped into the breach once again. The rescue of these otherwise overlooked relics stands as a testimony to the museums dedication and love of
old aircraft."

Malcolm Porter has a long history in aviation and worked as a loadmaster on various Canadair CL-44s. Those Rolls Royce Tyne turboprops brought him to most parts of the world.
The cavernous hold accepts pallets for Boeing 747s.

With the restoration, after years of storage at Smyrna, now almost complete, Malcolm is anxious to get on with the real thing and fly cargo again. "We haven't restored this plane for fun, we are in it to make money with it and we believe there is a market for it !", he told me.
Hopefully he will find a customer (an airline with a rush job, such as to ferry an engine perhaps ?) soon, the idea seems sound to me !
Click here to see how I found 9G-LCA at Smyrna in 2001 and a word on the previous operators.

Malcolm Porter wrote the book "Swingtail - The CL44 Story" (Air-Britain, 2004) and it is recommended reading!

 

Some shots of this impressive cockpit: look at that flight engineer's panel ! And what about that steering wheel, eh ?

Unfortunately 9G-LCA did not operate any commercial flight (probably loosing out to the cheaper Antonov An-22, also in the market for outsize cargo) and by 2006 rumors circulated of it a/going to a museum, b/being scrapped and c/being restored for an unnamed airline (restored by whom, as BASCO was rumored to be on the brink of bankruptcy..?).
The following was published on http://www.flyingtigerline.org/ discussion forum 03jan07 by Dwight Small:
"I recently got a call from Malcolm Porter, the president of the CL-44 Assocation. He asked me to let you know what's happening with the Guppy. As some of you know, she was within a week of being scrapped when a white knight came along and rescued her... in the form of a heavy lift Australian airline that plans to use her in Australia, for inter island carriage in the Southwest Pacific.
She has been sitting on the ramp at a Bournemouth, UK maintenance facility for about 5-6 years. The facility finally ordered her removed or be scrapped so the reprieve came just in time!
The engines have been run several times and she's been taxi tested. The avionics are all working now but that was a problem. Sitting on the ramp at a coastal city took its toll. Some canon plugs had to be completely re-pinned. An engine was found in Africa so the no.1 engine was replaced. Another engine will be picked up enroute to Cairns, Australia. The planned routing will be through Middle East with a few stops. The center tank, tank 6, will not be used so range will be reduced. The CL-44 is a very long range airplane, so this shouldn't be a problem, should still provide a range of 3-4 thousand miles. The Captain has over 10,000 hours in the plane. The FO has little CL-44 experience, but the engineer has thousands of hours. The crew's average age is 67.
Malcolm will accompany the flight as Loadmaster. He has over 15,000 hours in the -44. In a brief email today, he told me that she's ready to fly and his bags are packed. Perhaps they are a bit ahead of schedule; the departure from Bournemouth had been set for the 15th. They plan to takeoff and remain in the area long enough to determine that all systems are up to the task and, if so, they plan to head for Australia. She now has Philippine registry RP-C 8023.
She was N447T when we flew her prior to being converted into a Guppy. "

"Reference the data on XM496 Britannia we would be highly grateful if you could update with correct details.
The Bristol Britannia Preservation Trust is not connected with XM496 in any way and the aircraft is solely in the care of The XM496 Preservation Society. (www.xm496.com)
The repaint you show in her RAF livery has been carried out with reference to original master copies of Royal Air Force archived documents and witnessed every inch of the way by 5 ex crew members of Regulus in her RAF days. I was in fact one of the painters last June and the Britannia was one of the first aircraft I served on during my 22 years in the Royal Air Force.
She is incidentally the only Britannia specimen still complete anywhere in the world and `live' although regretfully she will never fly again. She was also the last Britannia ever to fly.
Sincerely
Derek Smith
Secretary - Bristol Britannia XM496 Preservation Society. (May 2006)

Some general information on the Grumman Albatross:
The HU-16 was the result of the US Navy seeking a longer-range amphibian for utility transport and air-sea rescue. The smaller Grumman Goose served with the US Navy during WW2 in a transport role. Grumman won approval for design G-64 in 1944.
The first prototype flew on 24Oct47.
The USAF ordered 305 aircraft, designated SA-16A. And in 1957 the improved version SA-16B (with longer 96-foot wings and extended range) entered service. In 1962 the designation was changed to HU-16 (the USAF SA-16A became HU-16A and 241 aircraft were returned to Grumman and rebuilt to HU-16B specification).
The US Navy UF-1 designation became the HU-16C and the long-wing model became the HU-16D, while the US Coast Guard model -designated UF-1G- in turn became HU-16E.
Thirteen airframes were converted to G-111 civilian air carrier standard.
-from: Propliner magazine 106 (2006), "The Return of the Albatross" by Patrick Dean. (The article has much more detail and information on this fine Vintage Transport).

Click on the image for a larger view.

Design of the Viscount, as a successor to the Viking, began in 1945. It was handed over to BEA in February 1953 and was fitted out with a 40 seat, all first class interior. This was later changed to a 63 seat high-density layout.
In August 1963 G-ALWF was sold to Channel Airways and in November 1964 they leased it to British Eagle Int'l Airlines (named "City of Exeter"). It was returned to Channel Airways in May 1965 and bought by Cambrian Airways on 13Feb66, who operated it until 24th December 1971 when it was taken out of service and stored at Cardiff.
On 12th April 1972 G-ALWF flew from Rhoose to Liverpool to be put on display to the public under the care of the Viscount Preservation Trust. Its closure as a public exhibit because of security regulations put its future in doubt until the Duxford Aviation Society offered to dismantle it and transport it to Duxford by road in 1975.
During its working life it flew a total of 28,299 hours and made 25,938 landings.
(Source: http://www.das.org.uk/viscount.htm and Airlines & Airliners, Vickers Viscount 700 Series).