G'day from the cattle truck as were driving along the Leach Highway, so this is what it's like if you came along with us on one of our day outs. As you can see i've got the talkative one next to me, cos that way when i'm totally stuffed by the end of the day I can get rid of her 'to the back' on the return trip home. And where were the mob off too this week I here you ask.... well it was time to visit the Aviation Heritage Museum of Western Australia (or airplane museum for short). An
d what a rippsnorter of a day the old fella upstairs put on for us, and here are the kiddies under an old spitfire Mark LF-XVI E which started service with RAAF 451 squadron on the 3rd February 1945. Strewth that makes this plane younger then my old man (POP Paul), it served with RAF 451, 164, 577 and 288 squadrons before being retired.
Inside the huge shed the first plane we came to was an old favourite of my Dad's it was a Catalina, The Catalina performed a significant role in Australia's defense in World War II and Rathmines Park was then the world’s biggest flying boat base.
Then it was time to have a little play on a plane for the kiddies, and the Gardan Sud Horizon GY80-180 was it. This plane was built in France and was flown to Australia in 1968 by Dr Dicks, husband of Robin Miller, the famous flying nurse known to aborigines as "The Sugar B
ird Lady" from her distribution of polio vaccine on thousands of sugar cubes.'Hello lady's and gentleman this is your Captain Osk speaking, today we will be flying over Perth and Whitemans Park if we can only get this thing of the ground!' God help us...
Then we came to my favourite fighting plane the Vickers Armstrong built Spitfire, It's maiden flight 5th March, 1936 and fought till 1952. Spitfires last saw combat during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when, in a strange twist, Israeli Air Force Spitfires fought against Egyptian and Royal Air Force Spitfires. With the advent of the RAF's new jet fighters, the Spitfire (even in its final 450 mph Mark 24 form) became obsolete after building a total of 20,351. It's sat's were THE MARK24 Wingspan: 36 ft 11 in (11.25 m) Rolls-Royce 61 2,375 HP at 1,250ft, Performance: 450mpa (724km/h) Range: 580miles (930kms) Armament:4, 20 mm Hispano cannons.
Then we came to the Avro Lancaster boomer which is just a friggin' ripper plane, The 'Lanc' or 'Lankie' as it became affectionately known became the most famous and most successful of the Second World War night bombers, reputedly "delivering 608,612 tons of bombs in 156,000 sorties". They were used for daylight precision bombing raids using the large "Tallboy"(11,000 pound) and
Here is Jacko and Sarah with a CA-5 Wirraway. Wirraways were mainly operated as advanced trainers during World War II, but in the early stages of the Pacific war, some saw action against Japanese fighters and bombers - with only a little success, and many losses. The RAAF continued to use the Wirraway as a trainer after the war, the last not being retired until 1959.
This is the Macchi MB-326H which was based at Pearce air-base just out of Perth, with No. 25 Squadron. The aircraft set some class records after its introduction, initially an altitude record of 15,489 m in August 1961, followed by other altitude and speed records in
The next big plane was the Douglas c47 Dakota which had it's maiden flight in 1933 and was retired from the RAAF in 1999, the Dakota on display in the Museum is a C-47B and was the last Dakota received by the RAAF. Commencing in 1945, since then it has served in Papua New Guinea, Korea, Malaysia and Australia - including a 5 year stint patrolling the North West Coast of WA. The Dakota served in all theatres of World War II, notably flying supplies from India to China over the mountains, known as "The Hump", and ferrying paratroops to Europe as part of the 1944 D-day landings.
Well their was heaps more planes that we had a gander at but of cause we can't pop every one in here, like a few tiger moths, a Vampire, Percival Proctor and many more. It was a ripper day and the kiddies had heaps of fun having a squizz at them, and by the way an old fella working their who flow some of these planes told us that this is the biggest collection of artefacts and planes in the southern hemisphere... Strewth!