Parafield fly-in, 29 March 2010

For my friends who are not on Facebook, here's a pictorial catch up. The Classic Jets Fighter Museum held its annual display at the end of March. Last time I went was, I think, when the Lockheed Lightning restoration was rolled out. That bird is now in prime static display condition.


This time their Bell P39 Airacobra was shown off. This was restored using a corroded wreck recovered from Papua-New Guinea, and the last time I saw this aircraft it was mostly just the lower part of the fuselage that had been saved from destruction by being part buried.


Funds raised from the display will support their next restoration, an F4U Corsair.

Australia used 22 Airacobras during WW2. This fly-in featured a few of its contemporaries. One of my favourites was the CAC CA-12 Boomerang, built using common components from the CAC Wirraway, a stumpy little fighter which seems to be all engine. This one even lives locally.


The Wirraway began as the North American Texan / Harvard, with a few modifications (notably the D-shaped tail introduced on about the second Aussie-built aircraft, distinct from the triangular fin of the parent aircraft).



For something based on a trainer, a Wirraway once shot down a Japanese Zero fighter. Its fighter cousin, the Boomerang, didn't get any.

There are a number of Mustang warbirds still flying in Australia, mostly the Australian-built CAC CA-18 Mk22 version. They regularly appear at air shows, but it was a nice change to see this colourful example of a North American P51D, US production number 45-11526, civil registration VH-FST, owned by a local man.


Classic trainer aircraft were well represented. The DeHavilland DH82 Tiger Moth, of course - I counted four. VH-ABL is the one nearest camera.


The DeHavilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk was a popular postwar trainer in Commonwealth air forces and later private ownership. This is VH-BSR, also one of four present, all in very different liveries.


Less common is the Boeing Stearman. There are a couple that reside locally, one in the classic blue fuselage and yellow wings of the US pre-war era, and this all yellow example, BoeingA75N1 registered VH-JUX in a US Navy scheme.


Eastern bloc trainers are fairly common locally, mostly the Chinese-built Nanchang CJ-6, several of which provide warbird adventure flights from Goolwa, SA. The CJ-6 was present at the fly-in, but so was another aircraft also descended from the old Yak-18, the Russian Yakovlev Yak-52.


Its colourful cousin, the Yak-18T, VH-RUZ, is yet another of the classics living in the area.


And parked out on the boundary and looking sad were two jet warbirds, the Gloster Meteor F8, RAAF number A77-867, and the LiM-2, a Polish built trainer variant of the Russian Mig-15. They are both for sale, I hear through the grapevine.