AUSTRALIAN MILITARY HISTORY

While AIRSHOW 2023 will highlight the fast jets and sophisticated specialist aircraft operated by the Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Australian Navy and Army, it will also acknowledge the generations that have gone before.

The Supermarine Spitfire and North American P-51 Mustang (and its Australian-built cousin, the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation CA-18) were the “fast jets” of their day.

As a revolutionary new fast bomber, the English Electric Canberra broke speed records. The Government Aircraft Factory Canberras, built right here on Avalon Airport, served the Royal Australian Air Force in Vietnam. In 2019, Defence entered into an agreement with the Temora Aviation Museum to transfer ownership of 11 historically significant aircraft to the Royal Australian Air Force. The aircraft, an English Electric Canberra, De Havilland Vampire, Gloster Meteor, two Supermarine Spitfires, a Lockheed Hudson, CAC Wirraway and Boomerang, Cessna A-37B Dragonfly, De Havilland DH-82A Tiger Moth and a Ryan STMS2 are located and maintained by the expert staff at the Temora Aviation Museum. They are administered by the reformed 100 Squadron.

And thanks to this bold move to secure Australia’s aviation heritage, the majority of these aircraft will appear at AIRSHOW 2023.

Not only will AIRSHOW 2023 feature Australia’s only flying Canberra, it will also be one of the few chances to have two Canberras on the same airfield. Avalon’s own non-flying Australian-built Canberra, A84-232, will be the “Gate Guardian” star of the show after a renovation that saw the aircraft stripped to bare metal for a repaint.

This display will feature firsts and film stars. The heritage flight CA-16 Wirraway trainer was the first ex-military aircraft allowed to fly on the Australian civil register, while the Spitfire MkXVI played a minor role in two famous feature films.

The collection of aircraft will also illustrate Australia’s varied aircraft manufacturing history, including two indigenous trainer types, several Australian-built versions of overseas designs, and others imported directly from the countries in which they were made.

For those who still appreciate the roar of the Rolls Royce Merlin, the thunder of a big radial engine and the sun sparkling on propellor blades, the Australian military heritage program will not disappoint.

The following offers a snapshot, but not the entire list, of heritage aircraft flying at AIRSHOW 2023.

The heritage fleet Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation Wirraway VH-BFF has had a colourful life, built before the end of World War II, received by 5 Squadron on the island of Bougainville just months before the war’s end and dismantled in 1946. Rebuilt in 1975, it later became the first exmilitary aircraft permitted to fly on the Australian Civil Aviation Register. The aircraft is painted in the colours it wore on Bougainville in 1945.

The CAC CA-18 Mustang A68-170 is a part of the Royal Australian Air Force Museum’s heritage aircraft fleet. Received from CAC Fisherman’s Bend on 23 February 1950, A68-170 had a relatively short operational life in the Royal Australian Air Force before being approved for disposal, reprieved and finally issued to the Royal Australian Air Force Museum in 1970 in parts. Restoration to flying condition was completed in 1999.

This Supermarine Mk XVI Spitfire is an ex-wartime example, built at Vickers Armstrong’s Castle Bromwich “shadow factory”, near Birmingham, in late 1944. The aircraft is famous in film, used as a film prop for the 1955 classic film Reach For The Sky and as a spares source for flying Spitfires in the 1967 film Battle of Britain. It passed through several hands before completion of the restoration in 1989. Temora Aviation Museum acquired the aircraft in 2006 and the aircraft is now part of the RAAF 100 Squadron Temora Historic Flight Collection.

The 100 Squadron Canberra is a British-built English Electric Canberra that finished Royal Air Force service in 1991 before joining the UK airshow circuit. Temora Aviation Museum acquired the aircraft in May 2001 and repainted the aircraft to represent those flown by the Royal Australian Air Force 2 Squadron during the Vietnam conflict. This is the only English Electric Canberra flying in Australia.

After the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, the 100 Squadron Cessna A-37B aircraft was one of 95 captured and incorporated into the Vietnamese People’s Air Force. In 1989 Colin Pay and Noel Vinson found several Dragonflys in Vietnam. Ten were brought to Australia and fully restored to flying condition, with two later donated to the Temora Aviation Museum. After extensive restoration work on VH-XVA by the Temora Aviation Museum’s Engineering Team, the aircraft returned to flight in 2018 and regularly participates in Aircraft Showcase Days.