Rare RAAF Tiger Moths
Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:15 pm
The the first British-built, Australian assembled RAAF Tiger Moth:
A test Tiger equipped with mods including a closed in front cockpit and with instruments removed from it to enable the carriage of bombs to stop the Japanese.
A Medivac Tiger:
This one was developed back in Australia with bells & whistles after a field mod was tried out. As usual, the field mod was quick and dirty, while the base mod was higher quality and the war was over by the time it was finished.
(Photos via the RAAF Museum Archive.)
A test Tiger equipped with mods including a closed in front cockpit and with instruments removed from it to enable the carriage of bombs to stop the Japanese.
A Medivac Tiger:
This one was developed back in Australia with bells & whistles after a field mod was tried out. As usual, the field mod was quick and dirty, while the base mod was higher quality and the war was over by the time it was finished.
(Photos via the RAAF Museum Archive.)
Last edited by JDK on Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:35 pm
This one's rather interesting:
From Geoffrey Pentland's RAAF Camouflage & Markings Vol 2:
"This Tiger Moth of No 12 LASU was the first aircraft to land at Kairavu, New Guinea, after the Japanese had surrendered and was used to collect Lt-Gen Hatazo Adachi and fly him to Cape Wom on l4th September 1945. Its colour scheme - unusual for Tiger Moths - was overall foliage green. Standard markings were carried, the codes and serial having been fairly recently applied in medium sea grey."
It's believed to be the only Tiger Moth to have carried a Japanese General. (Not likely to be a long list, anyway!)
From the RAAF Museum Archive:
Taken by wacoykc at Brodhead in 2005 (copied across from the Vintage Aviation Forum).
Tiger 489's colours and role obviously appealed to Alan Reber who seems to have rebuilt a Tiger containing parts of A17-117 as A17-489. Looks like a very accurate scheme; putting the photos together here (always a bit mean!) shows tiny variations like a thicker stroke on the serial numbers and letter, and slightly narrower fin-flash. The blind flying hood, used for training, certainly wouldn't have been around in a forward area, but that's removable, not permanent. All nitpicks on a great scheme, IMHO.
There's a walkround of it here: http://www.adf-serials.com/gallery/DH82 ... th-A17-117 and details at the ADF serials website of the aircraft under both attributed serials, lined from the above gallery.
Hope that's of interest.
James,
From Geoffrey Pentland's RAAF Camouflage & Markings Vol 2:
"This Tiger Moth of No 12 LASU was the first aircraft to land at Kairavu, New Guinea, after the Japanese had surrendered and was used to collect Lt-Gen Hatazo Adachi and fly him to Cape Wom on l4th September 1945. Its colour scheme - unusual for Tiger Moths - was overall foliage green. Standard markings were carried, the codes and serial having been fairly recently applied in medium sea grey."
It's believed to be the only Tiger Moth to have carried a Japanese General. (Not likely to be a long list, anyway!)
From the RAAF Museum Archive:
Taken by wacoykc at Brodhead in 2005 (copied across from the Vintage Aviation Forum).
Tiger 489's colours and role obviously appealed to Alan Reber who seems to have rebuilt a Tiger containing parts of A17-117 as A17-489. Looks like a very accurate scheme; putting the photos together here (always a bit mean!) shows tiny variations like a thicker stroke on the serial numbers and letter, and slightly narrower fin-flash. The blind flying hood, used for training, certainly wouldn't have been around in a forward area, but that's removable, not permanent. All nitpicks on a great scheme, IMHO.
There's a walkround of it here: http://www.adf-serials.com/gallery/DH82 ... th-A17-117 and details at the ADF serials website of the aircraft under both attributed serials, lined from the above gallery.
Hope that's of interest.
James,
Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:44 pm
And another.
This embarrassed Tiger is wearing the 'BF' codes of 5 Squadron RAAF, who were flying Boomerangs and Wirraways on Army-Co-Op on Bougainville. As can be seen it's been flown by someone more used to a fighter...
(RAAF Museum Archive.)
I don't have any more info on this one, but it's presumably a 5 Sqn unit hack, used where bigger, heavier aircraft wouldn't be much use - er ~ like landing in long grass...
This embarrassed Tiger is wearing the 'BF' codes of 5 Squadron RAAF, who were flying Boomerangs and Wirraways on Army-Co-Op on Bougainville. As can be seen it's been flown by someone more used to a fighter...
(RAAF Museum Archive.)
I don't have any more info on this one, but it's presumably a 5 Sqn unit hack, used where bigger, heavier aircraft wouldn't be much use - er ~ like landing in long grass...
Sun Nov 02, 2008 9:22 pm
A17-489 is of interest to me James. I saved the photo of it from Vintage forum for my Tiger studies. So far the favorite color scheme is the camo with yellow bands #692.
However, I for one would consider it an honor to mark a restoration as one flown by a pilot who was a war hero or someone important to Aus. aviation if it's going to have RAAF colors. Nothing is definite on colors yet.
Other matters on the Lone Star Tiger.....T-7467's wings were removed yesterday to facilitate transport. We also plan to pull the engine so it doesn't shake the mounts apart during transport.
blue skies,
Doug
However, I for one would consider it an honor to mark a restoration as one flown by a pilot who was a war hero or someone important to Aus. aviation if it's going to have RAAF colors. Nothing is definite on colors yet.
Other matters on the Lone Star Tiger.....T-7467's wings were removed yesterday to facilitate transport. We also plan to pull the engine so it doesn't shake the mounts apart during transport.
blue skies,
Doug
Sun Nov 02, 2008 9:29 pm
What a cool airplane.
Sun Nov 02, 2008 10:29 pm
mustangdriver wrote:What a cool airplane.
Indeed. A mix of elegance and lumber.
The Tiger was (and is) a good trainers as it's hard to fly well, but generally not as lethal as many other trainers when you get it wrong, I'm told.
Doug,
As regards the colo(u)rs, that's all great - see some notes I've just put up in the Vintage forum, which relate to the differences and maintenance.
I'll carry on with the schemes research, meanwhile.
Cheers,