Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 9, 2024 21:18:23 GMT 12
From the Press, 25 August 1960. Does anyone have a photo of this aircraft with either the Kangaroo or the Kiwi on it? Or the other Grasshopper plane?
Kiwi Replaces Kangaroo As Emblem On Plane
The kiwi is a versatile bird. It has been admired by American tourists; it has been pressed on thousands of coins; it has fought and won battles with springboks and lions, and recently it fought and vanquished a kangaroo.
The kangaroo emblem of a Trans Australia Airline Company DC3 aircraft which is flying in New Zealand under charter to the National Airways Corporation has been permanently replaced by a kiwi.
Captain G. McDougall, the Australian pilot of the DC3 aircraft initiated the downfall of the kangaroo when he “jokingly” suggested to the engineers at the N.A.C. maintenance depot at Christchurch Airport that “it would be a good idea to paint a kiwi on the plane.”
“I wasn’t really serious,” he said, “and I was rather surprised when I found that they had superimposed kiwis over the kangaroos on both sides of the aircraft. All that was visible of the kangaroos were the noses and tails.”
When the aircraft returned to Australia to be overhauled and re-painted at the end of the first three months of the charter, the kiwis were touched-up and the noses and tails of the kangaroos removed, said Captain McDougall.
“Back home they took it in good part. They thought it was a grand idea,” he said.
The renewed charter expires on December 20, but before returning to Australia with his aircraft, Captain McDougall intends to have a larger kiwi painted on the tail, or in some other position, where it will not have to be removed when the aircraft is again repainted. He said that this was not the first time the kangaroo emblem had been changed.
After one of his company’s aircraft had been spraying grasshoppers in Western Australia, it returned with a grasshopper wearing boxing gloves and holding a spray in its hand, painted on the side.
“That plane is still flying around Australia with its grasshopper emblem,” he said. The DC3 was chartered, complete with crew, by N.A.C. earlier this year for freight transport between Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.
Kiwi Replaces Kangaroo As Emblem On Plane
The kiwi is a versatile bird. It has been admired by American tourists; it has been pressed on thousands of coins; it has fought and won battles with springboks and lions, and recently it fought and vanquished a kangaroo.
The kangaroo emblem of a Trans Australia Airline Company DC3 aircraft which is flying in New Zealand under charter to the National Airways Corporation has been permanently replaced by a kiwi.
Captain G. McDougall, the Australian pilot of the DC3 aircraft initiated the downfall of the kangaroo when he “jokingly” suggested to the engineers at the N.A.C. maintenance depot at Christchurch Airport that “it would be a good idea to paint a kiwi on the plane.”
“I wasn’t really serious,” he said, “and I was rather surprised when I found that they had superimposed kiwis over the kangaroos on both sides of the aircraft. All that was visible of the kangaroos were the noses and tails.”
When the aircraft returned to Australia to be overhauled and re-painted at the end of the first three months of the charter, the kiwis were touched-up and the noses and tails of the kangaroos removed, said Captain McDougall.
“Back home they took it in good part. They thought it was a grand idea,” he said.
The renewed charter expires on December 20, but before returning to Australia with his aircraft, Captain McDougall intends to have a larger kiwi painted on the tail, or in some other position, where it will not have to be removed when the aircraft is again repainted. He said that this was not the first time the kangaroo emblem had been changed.
After one of his company’s aircraft had been spraying grasshoppers in Western Australia, it returned with a grasshopper wearing boxing gloves and holding a spray in its hand, painted on the side.
“That plane is still flying around Australia with its grasshopper emblem,” he said. The DC3 was chartered, complete with crew, by N.A.C. earlier this year for freight transport between Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.
