Warbird Information Exchange

Unique Cdn. bush plane sells for $700,000

Once flew Ontario backwoods, now a collector's dream

By Randy Boswell, Canwest News ServiceJanuary 25, 2010

An aluminum-bodied bush plane from the pioneering age of Canadian aviation -- the only one of its kind in existence -- was sold at a U.S. auction on the weekend for more than $700,000.

Described as "one of the rarest and most beautifully restored classic aircraft in the world," the 81-year-old Hamilton Metalplane once patrolled the forests and lakes of northern Ontario as part of a government mission to map and monitor the country's uncharted backwoods.

The plane was built in the United States in 1929 and shipped to Canada at a time when aerial surveys of remote regions were considered key to the country's territorial sovereignty and economic development.

Meticulously refurbished in the 1960s by an antique aircraft buff in the U.S., the relic can still be flown safely and is the lone, intact survivor from a total production run of just 29 Metalplanes at an early Boeing factory in Wisconsin.

Though expected to sell for as much as $1 million at the Barrett-Jackson vintage car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, the plane was still the top seller and historic highlight of the six-day sale.

An unidentified collector placed a top bid of $710,000 late Saturday to take home the prize piece of North American aviation heritage.

"The rebirth of this Hamilton Metalplane," Barrett-Jackson president Steve Davis said prior to the auction on Saturday, "is one of the most impressive restoration feats I've ever seen."

The plane was originally sold to the Ontario Provincial Air Service, a government operation set up in 1924 with a central hangar at Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. -- today the home of the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre.

An Ontario government history of the air service says its aircraft fleet was used for "transporting personnel, patrolling for forest fires, sketching of timber limits and aerial photography."

The provincial air service was established when Canadian aviation was at a fledgling stage, but increasingly seen as necessary for nation-building, resource management and search-and-rescue in such a vast country.

Photos ( 14 ) posted of it

Posted: http://www.driving.ca/Unique+bush+plane ... story.html

As reported on the Vintage Forum here, it's reportedly heading for Seattle.

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