WIX Archives
Re: DH 103 HORNET's
Posted by Jeff on Fri Feb 06, 2004 11:51:23 AM
In reply top Re: DH 103 HORNET's posted by Graham O on Fri Feb 06, 2004 08:58:25 AM
I know a seahornet was sent out here for evaluation purposes will have to check and see if the serial matches. Like you I very vaguely remember that aircraft. my father took me to see it once. it was parked outside at an air pageant at Parafield. this was just before it left I think. I am not sure but might even have a slide or two of it in my father's old pile of slides.
btw parafield is still my local airfield but closer than ever before now.
: Hi Mick,
: While I don't believe there was ever a "Heap of Hornets" a
: ywhere in Australia, your reference to the Hornet in Woome
: ra is based on some fact. Even in Leslie Hunt's 1973 editi
: on of Vintage and Veteran Aircraft (4th and final edition)
: he mentions a Sea Hornet F.Mk.20 at Woomera and interest
: back then in securing this (or whatever was left of it) fo
: r the Mosquito Museum at Salsbury Hall. The aircraft i.d.
: quoted was TT213.
:
: As for the Mustangs, I was an eight year old living in Ade
: laide when Tony Schwerdt flew Mustang A68-1 out of Emu Str
: ip and all the way to Parafield with the gear down. The Mu
: stang really did look like an aeroplane that had been foun
: d sitting in the desert and just flown out. It still had a
: shattered side windscreen which I assume had been done by
: some jackaroo looking for something different to shoot at
: but in the child's mind there was no question that this h
: ad been caused in combat with a Japanese or German aircraf
: t (limited grasp of history at the time). Tony used to tak
: e the Mustang out onto the tarmac and run it up from time
: to time. It had 'Desert Rat' painted on the nose in recogn
: ition of its time at Emu Strip. Since I had been growing u
: p on a steady diet of Airfix kits of WW-II fighters, havin
: g a real live Mustang fly out of the past and take up resi
: dence at our local aiirport was a dream come true. It brok
: e my heart when it left, to reappear marked incorrectly as
: A68-1001 (which was a different aircraft) with Wiley Sand
: ers in Alabama. With a childhood like this, it is little w
: onder my full time work is dealing with vintage and warbir
: d aircraft. Yahoo!
:
: Cheers,
: GMO
:
:
: : There was a heap of Hornets used in the Bomb tests at Ma
: ra
: : linga.They must still be there.