VETERAN AND VINTAGE AIRCRAFT

[SEAN]

Hello All

I am sure the following will be of great interest to you all. These scans are taken from a book called "Veteran and Vintage Aircraft", which was compiled by Leslie Hunt, who also wrote "Defence Until Dawn", the history of 488 (NZ) Squadron.

This book (Veteran and Vintage Aircraft) gives details of all the old aircraft from around the world in 1974. These scans are of the NZ section of the book.

I am sure that some of you will have a lot of fun trying to track down what still remains, and what went where etc, so have fun.... ;D ;D ;D










GOOD LUCK

[Peter Lewis]

It was the "Bible" at that time. I still have my copy.
The NZ section was largely based on data from Bunny Darby, who was involved with MoTAT for some years. It did contain some inaccuracies (eg the Gloster Meteor, which had been scrapped years before) but it was a good effort for those days.

[flyjoe180]

How things change, some of those aircraft would have been no more than 40 years old and were referred to as vintage or classics. Now days we have aircraft older than that serving in small airlines and with the RNZAF. Like cars in many ways, 10 years for a car up to the late 1980's was considered a good innings.

[beagle]

Imagine their worth if lots of them were still airworthy.
I remember being at Wigram back in the early 80's after the introduction of the CT4 and there were 2-3 Harvards at the back of no#4 hangar. Are they still in RNZAF hands at say Wigram or Weedons , or did they get sold off.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks for the scans Sean. I've heard a lot about the book and subsequent volumes but never seen it. Les Hunt was also the Intelligence Officer on 488 (NZ) Squadron. You can read a little about him on my website on Ron Watts' story, who was Les's CO.