Warbird Information Exchange

Hi all

I have been asked to put up some photos of the Wangarratta Airworld site where Murray Griffiths and his team have been undergoing a massive expansion of their efforts to restore a large number of aircraft over the next few years. There was only one problem - I didn't have any !!!
Well just a few anyway- until now.

Erstwhile UK poster Tony Andrews is on a wide ranging visit to Australia at present and has kindly agreed to let me post some of the SEVERAL THOUSAND shots he took there last week so I have started putting some up on my Webshots account at

http://community.webshots.com/user/setter125

Murray is working on
Several A20 Bostons
Several Vengances
4-5 P40s
2-3 Kingfishers
4-5 P39s
4 Ki61s
1 Corsair


Here are some sample shots
The First of many

Murrays own P40



The next of many - The next P40 in the production line



Another P40 in the line



First Ki61 Tony in the jig - 3 more to follow


Advanced P39 in the jig



Kingfisher awaiting it's turn



One day this will be a Vengance

This is just the tip of the Ice Berg in what is an amazing project - there is activity everywhere and good organisation and hard work is evident in everything that is being done.

I wish them all the best in this fantastic journey

I also sought and was granted permission by Murray to post these photos so thank go to him and also to Mick Grinter one of the skilled trades people working on these aircraft who assisted Tony during his visit

Regards
John Parker
http://community.webshots.com/user/setter125

_________________
Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

Absolutely stunning stuff John... I can't wait to see more. Do you know which aircraft (ie. id's of a/c and owners) are under Murray's care? Were the fuselage sections in the last image Vengeance? This is so fascinating. Please post pictures of the corsair as soon as you can too!

Cheers,
Richard

Hi Richard

Yes absolutly Gobsmacking!

Yes I know all the owners and I will just have to clear that through Murray before I post - The last shot is one of the Vengances - Corsair is from the US and I will post pics soon

Regards
John P

_________________
Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

Hi John... there is an enormous amount of work here, happening very quickly. The jigs alone would consume many man hours, let alone the molds to form new parts. How long has this being happening, and how many people are working there full time?

Cheers,
Richard

Hi Richard

i believe there are around 12 engineers full time and they have been building it up to thid level over the last year or so.

Regards
John P

_________________
Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

Great Pictures!! I love to see warbirds flying but more than that for some reason I love to see them taken apart receiving TLC. thanks

Shay

Great pics. I love to see jig/fixture pics. The webshots link didn't work.

Patrick

Agreed John--fantastic photos--just keep them coming!

Any idea yet on the owner of the second Kingfisher project (Just being nosey)?

_________________
It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Try going to memeber list and following the link under John's profile. That is how I got there. Well worth the look.

Thanks John, I can't wait to see more!

_________________
www.tailhookstudio.com

Thanks again John... just visited your webshots gallery, and was absolutely stunned at the activity going on in Wangaratta. It looked like there were at least 10 airframes receiving detailed attention simultaneously! One airframe I am really curious about (other than the corsair of course ) is the Kingfisher fuselage sitting in the jig. It is clearly a former Australian example, but also clearly not the one that was in semi-complete condition at Whale World. I was only aware of 1 Aussie Kingfisher survivor.... this seems to be a very likely second survivor! Can you confirm this, and do you know the serial number?

Cheers,
Richard

Hi

The correct web link to my other photos is
http://community.webshots.com/user/setter125

Richard

I think they only have one Australian Kingfisher but I will check for you.

Regards
John P

_________________
Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

Thanks John... the markings just seemed really faded, and it looked like the fuselage had been outside for some time, which seemed inconsistent with my recollections of the Whaleworld aircraft. There was also another photograph which appeared to show a section of Aussie Kingfisher fuselage (it had a bunch of control surfaces sitting in it, next to some Vengeance sections). Is this from the same aircraft?

Cheers,
Richard

PS. Any images of the corsair or A-20's yet?

The star of the flock is the Ki-61 project(s) IMO! The sparse number of them that do exist have been sitting stagnant for decades it seems. To know that there are four Tonys awaiting possible restoration is mind blowing to me.

How about the Boston projects? Where did all those come from?? Seems like the man pulled a few of these out of thin air.

_________________
Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

Hi Rob... couldn't agree more about the Ki-61's. The Bostons came out of PNG in the eighties. I think they recovered about 7 or 8 partial to complete airframes. I do remember that they helicoptered them out, and had to drop one when it started to go out of control during the ferry flight! Of the airframes they recovered, two were restored to pristine condition... an Aussie one for Australia, and a US one to be returned to PNG at a time when they have a sufficient place to display it... has this happened yet?

Cheers,
Richard

Hi Richard,
The American Havoc had not returned to PNG as of July when I was talking to one of the people who played a large role in the restoration effort. With the information that I have, it's almost certainly still up at Amberley today and is likely to be in Australia for some time to come. I haven't seen the Havoc but I have seen the Aussie Boston and the quality of restoration is magnificent.

Cheers,
Matt