How many warbirds survived Bennett's yard?

[Dave Homewood]

I was wondering how many of NZ's wartime aircraft that went to Bennett Aviation after the war have actually survived these days. They seem to have had a lot of aircraft wrecks, judging by the photos in this spread scanned from the April 1995 NZ Wings issue.

A crying shame, eh.

[Bruce]

I think only the three Avengers survised in any recognisable form, although a number of Harvard fuse frames found thier way into other projects. The sad thing is the Harvards in the yard were nearly all the early Mark IIs (note the different rear canopy section) Which are incrediably rare amongst the Harvard population nowdays.
I see there is a picture of the first user of my registration CKE!

[Dave Homewood]

Your plane is a lot prettier than the original CKE!

[Peter Lewis]

I make it 66 airframes sold to Bennetts/Waitomo Aviation. Not all of them actually made it up to Te Kuiti, quite a number of the Harvards were scrapped in the Christchurch area.
Those that did travel went by train - I wonder if they used one dedicated freight train for the exercise, that would have been quite a sight!
As Bruce says, it really depends on how you describe 'survived'. I can record the following as survivors who made it back out:

Avengers:
NZ2505
Sold to Waitomo Aviation 23Sep59, to playground at Opunake Beach 1964. Removed to Wellington for restoration 1972, storage at RNZAF Museum Wigram, on loan to Gisborne Aviation & Preservation Society from Oct99
NZ2527
WFU Ohakea Jun59, Sold to Bennett Aviation 23Sep59. To ZK-CBO, then eventually MoTAT; on loan to CAF at Dairy Flat
NZ2539
Sold Waitomo Aviation 23Sep59; resold to Hastings Jaycees, arr 24Aug65 for Havelock North playground, to K Jacobs of Auckland

Harvards
NZ906
Dec. surplus 1958, Sold by tender to Bennett Aviation Ltd, Te Kuiti. Sold - front portion only to Philip Burns of Christchurch
NZ918
Sold by to Bennett Aviation Ltd, Te Kuiti. Sold to Jaycees, to playground at Pahiatua Nov63
NZ948
Dec. surplus 1958, Sold by tender to Bennett Aviation Ltd, Te Kuiti. Cockpit remains to Peter MacQuarters of Dunedin who used this as start to build up a display Harvard from many u/s parts
NZ980
Sold by tender to Bennett Aviation Ltd, Te Kuiti. To Jaycees for playground at Tauranga Feb63 , removed 1979 and sold Asplin Supplies, scrapped 1980
NZ999
Dec. surplus 1958, Sold by tender to Bennett Aviation Ltd, Te Kuiti - in storage at Kumeu (Dwen?). Reported stolen late 1980s
NZ1100
Sold by GSB tender number 7078 to Bennett Aviation Ltd., Te Kuiti. Purchased by Jaycees and installed in childrens playground at Takapau in August 1963. To store at Ardmore with R. Jowitt. To Southair Aviation, Timaru with NZ1102. Sold by receivers of Southair to the Canterbury Flight of the Confederate Air Force. Swapped with RNZAF Museum in exchange for parts to return NZ1040 to airworthy condition. In storage at RNZAF Museum early 1990s. Fuselage stored at Omaka awaiting restoration
NZ1101
sold by GSB tender number 7078 to Bennett Aviation Ltd., Te Kuiti 1958; Believed sold in Australia for restoration

Certainly the Bennett Airtruck was not a thing of beauty. I never saw the original ( BPV ) but I did see the second one ( CKE ) at Ardmore once during its brief life. Only its mother could love it.
Reminded me of the old saying 'that aircraft doesn't actually fly, it's so ugly that the earth repells it.'

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Peter, at least something survived.

NZ2527 has been back at Sir Keith Park memorial Airfield for a few years and was undergoing restoration in the MOTAT hangar when I was lat there Dec 2005.

[ronb]

I had to register for one simple reason, and that is to say I used to play on those harvards as a kid!. Up until 10 years ago I had a bunch of slides depicting us kids playing fighter pilot on them and a row of the more complete ones lined up neatly in front.
You could spend hours climbing in and out and hiding under the canvas hood thing in the back.
Getting into the Grumman was an effort because the bomb bay was higher off the ground than us kids were able to reach so we would stand a bike underneath and stand on the seat so we could scramble up inside. It always (at that time) made me wonder how on earth anyone could fly one as they couldn't see out the front,but being around 3 foot tall probably answered that question.
I was born and and went to school in TeKuiti and most of the school mates had souvenirs from the aerodrome. The most popular 'swap items' were joy sticks and badges from inside the canopy. The most popular of those read " Caution,supercharged engine use special fuel" .Those of course got stuck on push bikes or go carts,eventually onto a first car. ;D

Then were the very popular 'Lettuce covers' that home gardeners used to protect their lettuce from the Foul TeKuiti weather...I remember seeing quite a few of those Harvard canopies being used for that in various vege gardens !.

Once the airtruck business folded the whole lot was virtually abandoned with the top dressing activities being about all that went on. There was gliding club and and on the road end was go kart track so it was great place for kids to explore .
One old hangar had a yellow tiger moth parked inside all covered in dirt and outside was another without any fabric.
The next place along the road was Carl Fishers wrecking yard,but thats another story
Cheers From Brisbane,Ron Bunting.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks for those memories Ron, sounds like a great place for kids to use their imaginations.

[ronb]

No Worries Dave,in fact reading through the post at the top I was reminded that I was at school with Peter Worthington and a bunch of other kids who dads were agricultural pilots.
Being of a generation whose male elders were mostly Returned service men ,there were a few of the male teachers at the TeKuiti Schools who were WW2 pilots,get them talking war stories and that would be the lesson for the day... ;D ;D ;D

[shorty]

Here's a shot I took of Bennets yard in 69 while I was on my honeymoon (you've got get your priorities right!)
Dave, you might want to have a play with this photo to improve it.

[ronb]

I remember when the skin was taken from the Harvards and just the bones left,I was a bit distraught at the time ...They must have worked like demons to get it all off because 1 month they were al almost complete and when cycled out one saturday morning they were all like that.

As an apprentice in Otahu some years later I was sneaking around pacific steels yard(as you do...) and found a pile of radial engines ...from TeKuiti . I had intended to go back and grab some tools to salvage a cylinder barrel or two but discovered a wagon load of panels from Ford at Wiri ;D I don't what PS would have done with them,probably sold off the alloy to some overseas scrap out fit I guess.

[Dave Homewood]

How about this? It's a little better:

[camtech]

Reviving this old thread to try to confirm the serials of the Harvards that were sold to Bennetts. The tender (7078) stated 61 airframes, but various sources come up with other numbers. The AF380 is misleading in that some airframes that went to Bennetts are not listed as such and require some guess work. ADF Serials is close, but not complete.
I know a number of frames never made it to Te Kuiti and were sighted in a scrapyard in Bexley, Christchurch, so any details would be appreciated.
I'm currently working on the GSB/WARB tenders to try to reconcile the sales with the tenders and what aircraft were sold, as the details don't always add up. So any details (copies of tender notices, acceptance letters, etc) would be greatly appreciated.
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