Kingfisher Census

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2011 4:01 pm

Apologies if this has already been done but how many Kingfishers do we have left?

1 in Chile
1 in Cuba
3 in NZ? to be restored to fly? (More info please!)
1 at NASM
1 NNAM
1 on the Battleship North Carolina
1 at the Battleship Alabama Museum

Did I miss or miss-represent any?

Jerry O'Neill · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2011 4:20 pm

Chris;
I'm not sure, but Charlie Nichols at Chino acquired the remains of the NEAM OS2U many years ago and they could be part of the three in NZ. I know that they were at Chino for a while. Anybody?
Jerry

Mike · **Joined:** Tue May 04, 2004 8:54 am **Posts:** 3331

None in NZ.

There's a separate country down in the southern hemisphere called Australia. Unlike New Zealand (largely populated by Scottish sheep farmers and hobbits) it is where the British shipped their convicts off to. At one time they used to be quite good at a game known as cricket (not to be confused with the insect of the same name), nowadays they have to be content at winning in Australian Rules Football (a misnomer as there don't appear to be any rules as such) - a sport in which they don't allow any other countries to take part, so in that respect it is a bit like most American sports.

Here endeth today's geography lesson

The Inspector · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2011 4:27 pm

Never understood Aussie Rules Football when ESPN carried it decades ago, but I must admit the referees or judges did look pretty sharp in those white fedoras and blazers. :supz:

TonyA · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:45 pm

Here's the one at Yanks some time ago:

And here's the former Whale World one at Wangaratta:

The aircraft in New Zealand (any Kiwi will tell you that what Mike called Australia is actually the West Island of New Zealand) are owned, as far as I know, by Precision Aerospace (the ex Whale World one), Kermit Weeks, Jerry Yagen

Jerry O'Neill · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2011 10:18 pm

The fuselage with the star outline is the ex-NEAM OS2U airframe.
I think we traded or sold it way back in the 80's.
Love to see it in one restored piece someday!
Jerry

SaxMan · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2011 10:19 pm

How similar were the Kingfisher and Vindicator? I used to think the Kingfisher was just a Vindicator with floats, but after looking at the Kingfisher at Udvar-Hazy and seeing pics of the Vindicator, the Vindicator seems to be a larger plane.

Jerry O'Neill · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:03 pm

Totally different airframes. I'd have to say that the rudders, rudder posts, horizontals and outer wing panels of the Kingfisher, Vindicator and Corsair all have a similar appearance and shape, but they are different.
Jerry

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:10 am

Ohhhh, that much bigger island next to the little one! :wink:

So has there been any work done to the three in Australia as of recent? And who owns the third?

Jerry Yagen 1
Kermit Weeks 1
? 1

Andy in West Oz · **Posted:** Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:35 am

That's the one, WK, the one with the air force...

The Whale World Kingfisher looks like it's in a rollover frame.

RMAllnutt · **Posted:** Sat Jul 16, 2011 9:31 am

Hey Chris... just being cheeky here.... but you might want to change the title to Census... rather than Concensus

Cheers,
Richard

Dave Homewood · **Posted:** Sat Jul 16, 2011 9:50 am

For those Americans here who need educating in the differences between Australia and New Zealand, I recommend that you listen to the programme made specifically for this purpose:-
The documentary series The Pacific Story is an excellent and interesting documentary series made by NBC in WWII covering the history and politics of all the Pacific nations and war situations in the Pacific.
Episode 26 is all about educating Americans about New Zealand. It uses historical naration and dramatised vignettes, covering the history of the cuntry and it's differences from Australia and other nations. The premise is a kiwi Sgt and a GI having a chat on the beach at Bougainville in 1944, and the GI mistakes the kiwi as comign from Australia. The kiwi re-educates him.
Have a listen or download it here:
http://www.archive.org/details/OTRR_Pac ... ry_Singles

Many of the other episodes, especially about Japan, are very good, and they draw on university scholars for their research too, not just Hollywood scriptwriters. Of course a lot of the history is outdated and rewritten these days.

Another great old 1930's radio show from the USA all about NZ is an episode of Ports of Call, which is more a tourism and georgarpical style show with lots of history thrown in.
http://www.archive.org/details/OTRR_Por ... ll_Singles

The NZ episode is hilarious, there's a Scottish farmer who ehars about the gld rush and is all keyed up to leave and join the rush. His wife asks "What about the sheep?" and unbelievably the farmer replies, "Bugger the sheep!!" Amazing use of the word for 1930's!

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:36 pm

RMAllnutt wrote:

Hey Chris... just being cheeky here.... but you might want to change the title to Census... rather than Concensus

Cheers,
Richard

Izz wuz nevr thatd good at spliin anywyz....

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