The Fairey Gordon Pile

[Dave Homewood]

I really like the look of the Fairey Gordon, a very nice and rather large biplane, similar to the Baffin. The Gordon played a vital role as a, advanced single engine trainer for the RNZAF from 1939-41, and also towed targets for gunnery trainees. I reckon it's time for a thread with photos of these lovely aircraft. These all come from the National Library of New Zealand's collection:


Date: 1939
Ref: WA-21505-G
Photograph taken by Leo White


Date: 1939
Ref: WA-21507-G
Photograph taken by Leo White


Date: 1939
Ref: WA-21506-G
Photograph taken by Leo White


Date: 1939
Ref: WA-21508-G
Aerial photograph taken by Whites Aviation.

[Dave Homewood]

Date: 1939 Ref: 1/4-032311-G
View of a Fairy Gordon medium range bomber at an RNZAF airfield photographed by an unknown photographer for the Evening Post newspaper on the 30th June 1939

[davidd]

Dave, that LOOKS like Wigram to me (skyline to right-hand side looks like Dyers Pass), but possibility exists that it MAY have been snapped at Omaka. Notice that these Gordons in the original RAF Scheme have their fuselage serials numbers "picked out" in white. As can be seen, these aircraft usually had the Fairey-Reed metal propeller, manufactured by Fairey in UK under an American License. The interesting "notch" on the trailing edge of the rear interplane struts always used to intrigue me, and I am fairly certain that Fairey IIIFs and Gordons had folding wings, so the notches may have had something to do with securing the wings in the folded position. Have just checked my copy of RNZAF Flight Riggers Notes, in fact the Gordon DID have folding wings, but how often this feature was employed in RNZAF service I do not know - has anybody got a photo of one with folded wings? No doubt this feature was a hangover from the days when the Fairey IIIF was built for the FAA, and flew off carriers.
David D

[Dave Homewood]

You're right, it is Wigram, that caption is from the National Library's page, not mine.

Hmm, I have never seen a photo of a Gordon with the wings folded. I wish my great uncle Bluey was still with us, he spent the beginning of WWII pushing the Gordons in and out of the Wigram hangars much to his chagrin as he'd signed up to be an Air Gunner. He would have known if they folded the wings to fit them all in. He gave up and went and joined the Army in 1940.

[johnnyfalcon]

Dec 14, 2017 16:46:42 GMT 12 davidd said:

The interesting "notch" on the trailing edge of the rear interplane struts always used to intrigue me, and I am fairly certain that Fairey IIIFs and Gordons had folding wings, so the notches may have had something to do with securing the wings in the folded position.

...ala Fairey Swordfish?

[camtech]

Did the Air Force use Shell tankers on station for refuelling?

Some detail from a logbook at the Air Force Museum
(From Higgins logbook K4005 and K3999 (F/O Smith) – Both flew up to Hobsonville with F/O Willis in NZ251 27 June. K4005 flew Hob – New Plymouth – Wellington 30 Jun, Wellington – Wigram 4 July)
Newspaper reports indicate both aircraft flew together. Apparently held up at Rongotai due to weather.

[curtiss]

There is a piece of fabric from a Gordon with serial K4005 on display at the Aviation Heritage Centre, Omaka.

[scrooge]

From the point of view of a little practical experience- you would not bother to fold the wings unless you had to (necessity [deck or hangar space] or if it was standard practice). It's best to have a couple of people to do something the size of a Foxmoth (but can be done solo) and you might also need to adjust the control cables folding and unfolding depending on the geometry of the wing in each position.

[Dave Homewood]

Army search for crashed plane

A small party of soldiers taking part in the Third Infantry Brigade Group’s annual camp near Cass will begin searching tomorrow for the remains of an R.N.Z.A.F. Fairey Gordon aircraft which crashed in the McArthur Gorge in 1942.

The exercise will use detailed search and rescue techniques and will cover an area of 500 square metres Major K. J. Beale, who did a reconnaissance of the area by helicopter this afternoon, has narrowed the search area by talking to a former army officer, Mr D. S. Boyd, of North Beach, Christchurch.

Mr Boyd, then a major, was a member of the party which searched for, and found, the aircraft shortly after the crash.

At that time only a wheel was recovered for the purpose of positive identification. However Major Beale does not rate very highly the chances of success of tomorrow’s search. He says the country is very steep and broken, and the remains of the aircraft could well have been covered under a shingle slide. The search party tomorrow will carry a mine detector and plans to cover the area meticulously. They will be landed by helicopter tomorrow morning on a river flat about 1000 metres below the search area.

PRESS,  22 JANUARY 1975

[Dave Homewood]

‘Lost’ plane was not lost

While the exercise involved might be good for the party of infantrymen concerned, their search for the remains of an R.N.Z.A.F. Fairey Gordon aircraft which crashed in the McArthur Gorge, not far from where the 3rd Infantry Brigade Group is holding its annual camp, is unnecessary, says a former Air Force officer. Wing Commander J. R. Claydon, who was then a corporal engine fitter, led the ground party from Wigram which found and recovered parts of the aircraft on April 17,  1940.

Mr Claydon said he was puzzled by the report in “The Press” yesterday about the Army searching for the Fairey Gordon, which was never “lost.” There was no particular reason for the Army group to recover a wheel for positive identification because he bad cut a portion of the fabric from the tail fin which bore the plane's number—NZ 629. If the soldiers were still searching for the aircraft he would be only too happy to take them right to it, he added.

At the time of the crash the Fairey Gordon was on a maximum load altitude flight from Wigram with two pilot officers on board. To help make up the maximum load, he said, two 250lb dummy bombs were carried. These are still with the aircraft wreckage.

"It appears, from talks I had with the pilots later, that they climbed to a certain altitude and must have drifted inland above the clouds. When they began to descend they believed they were over the sea. During the descent the aircraft got into a spin. They tried to bale out, but couldn’t.

“After a while the aircraft righted itself, and they took control again and tried to climb again. As they started to climb they saw a ridge with trees on it. Unable to pull the plane higher, they hit the ridge and slid over.

“Miraculously, the two pilots, apart from being badly shaken, got out of the aircraft. They scrambled somehow down the steep terrain to what is now known as the Poulter River, where some deer cullers had a base camp.” said Mr Claydon. The cullers came back and told the two airmen they were on Mount White Station, from where they were taken back to Wigram.

The recovery team which Mr Claydon led stripped the engine from the plane, and piece by piece got it back to the base camp. As the rest of the aircraft’s equipment was recovered it was carried to the Mount White homestead by pack horse.

Mr Claydon said the aircraft was never "lost,” but was only posted as missing. It was a week, however, before the search party found it.

Mr Claydon is apparently not the only person to lay claims to knowledge of the Fairey Gordon. A radio report yesterday said that an Auckland man had found the aircraft about three years ago, and that it I was his intention of eventually getting it placed in a transport museum in Auckland.

PRESS, 23 JANUARY 1975

[davidd]

A good job this thread has been re-activated Dave, as it gives us all the opportunity of reading right through it (it is only a short thread after all), and compare the information provided at each stage. For instance, I have reconsidered my statement (dated 14th December, 2017, in above), and after re-reading the immediately preceding caption, have come to conclusion that, although the aircraft was definitely being ferried to Wigram, it is almost certain that the photograph was taken at Rongotai (which of course also has hills in the immediate vicinity). The clue is in the identity of the photographer, or rather his employer: "Evening Post" (Wellington of course), if the information forming part of the caption is to be believed. From memory these were the first two Gordons delivered from Hobsonville to Wigram (K4005 and K3999, or K4009?) in July 1939, and one was also photographed at Omaka, although that may have been at a later date on a different visit, almost certainly an Aero Club pageant, I think in July.

[Dave Homewood]

NEW FAIREY GORDON MILITARY MACHINES LEAVE FOR WIGRAM AFTER ASSEMBLY AND TESTING AT HOBSONVILLE
In flight above the Hobsonville air base in this picture is one of the 26 Fairey Gordon medium-range day bombers which arrived last month from Royal Air Force stations in Egypt as part of the Government's current air defence expansion measures. Two of these machines, assembled and tested at Hobsonville, flew to Wellington yesterday en route for delivery at Wigram, Christchurch.
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 1 JULY 1939

[Dave Homewood]

BOMBERS' FLIGHT

AUCKLAND TO WIGRAM

FAIREY GORDON MACHINES

ASSEMBLY AT HOBSONVILLE

After assembly and testing by the staff of the Hobsonville base, two of the Fairey Gordon medium-range bombers, 26 of which recently arrived in New Zealand from Egyptian depots of the Royal Air Force, were flown yesterday from Auckland to Wellington on route to the Royal New Zealand Air Force base at Wigram. Other machines of the shipment will be sent south as they become available.

Piloted by Flying-Officer K. G. Smith and Pilot-Officer L. H. Hipkins, of Wigram, the machines left Hobsonville yesterday morning, and advice was received in Auckland during the afternoon that they had landed at Rongotai aerodrome. It is proposed to continue the flight to Wigram to-day.

Steady progress is being made by the Hobsonville staff in the assembly of the Fairey Gordons, which arrived from Egypt on the Federal Line steamer Huntingdon on June 3 The first of their type to come to New Zealand, the machines are biplanes with folding wings and an armament of one fixed Vickers gun firing forward and one Lewis gun in the back cockpit. Bombs are carried under the wing. Although far from being obsolete, the Fairey Gordons are being replaced in Near Eastern stations by more modern machines. When the purchase of the aircraft was announced, it was stated that they would be allotted to different New Zealand squadrons. Following their assembly, they are tested at Hobsonville and flown to their destination.

NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 1 JULY 1939

[Peter Lewis]

New? Who mentioned new?

[davidd]

I guess that they (Gordons) were considered "new" to New Zealand at the time?

Also the Pilot Officer L H Hipkins mentioned above was more likely to have been Hopkins; have never heard of a Hipkins in pre-war RNZAF. Most likely this was Wilfred Arthur Hopkins, who was definitely in RNZAF just pre-war, was one of the two occupants of a certain Territorial Air Force Baffin which ditched in Little Pigeon Bay in May 1939 (unhurt). I think he was a regular on strength of Wigram at the time.

[oj]

"Wing Commander J. R. Claydon, who was then a corporal engine fitter, led the ground party from Wigram which found and recovered parts of the aircraft on April 17, 1940."

This I reckon to be John Claydon who was i/c the NZ Antarctic Flight during IGY 1957 and onwards?

[Dave Homewood]

Correct OJ.

[emron]

Mar 3, 2023 19:14:50 GMT 12 davidd said:

I guess that they (Gordons) were considered "new" to New Zealand at the time?

Also the Pilot Officer L H Hipkins mentioned above was more likely to have been Hopkins; have never heard of a Hipkins in pre-war RNZAF. Most likely this was Wilfred Arthur Hopkins, who was definitely in RNZAF just pre-war, was one of the two occupants of a certain Territorial Air Force Baffin which ditched in Little Pigeon Bay in May 1939 (unhurt). I think he was a regular on strength of Wigram at the time.

The correct surname in the article was Higgins. Later, Acting Squadron Leader Lancelot Henry Higgins was killed in a training accident overseas (Catalina NZ4002), 23 September 1943.

[davidd]

Thanks for that emron.

[emron]

P/O Higgins was selected for the RNZAF in 1938 after successfully completing the third flying training course at Wigram. Others selected from that course included T. M. de Lange, T. F. Gill and S. G. Quill.

F/O Smith gained his Pilot’s Licence at Wellington Aero Club in 1932. He later became assistant flying instructor there. He was the pilot of Moth Major ZK-ADP from which “Scotty” Fraser made his fatal parachute jump at the McGregor Memorial Pageant in March 1936.
He was appointed to the NZ Territorial Air Force in 1935 and was transferred from the reserve of officers to the general duties branch of the RNZAF in April 1939. He too later flew Catalinas in the Pacific and as Wing Commander was C.O. of No.6 Flying Boat Squadron at Halavo Bay from June-September 1945.