New Zealand-John Smith Aircraft collection on the move.

Tue Jul 14, 2020 1:40 pm

Congrats to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre

The news is out and we couldn't be more excited to be able to announce publicly that the Omaka AHC will be welcoming The John Smith Collection to museum. We are honoured to be working with the Smith Family to preserve and publicly display these hero aircraft to New Zealand and the world. The Smith aircraft destined for display at OAHC include a complete de-Havilland Mosquito, John's own original Tiger Moth and New Zealand's most famous P-40, 'Gloria Lyons'. They will join the Lockheed Hudson, formerly gifted by John to Bill Reid, also on display at Omaka. A full copy of the press release will be available on our website. Image: John Harrison

https://www.facebook.com/OmakaAHC/

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/121990 ... -the-light
Pics from above article

Tue Jul 14, 2020 1:58 pm

It is great to learn that most of the aircraft will be going to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre, which will conserve and display them for the public. Hopefully the Mustang does stay in New Zealand and gets restored to fly as the Smith family would like to see happen.

I know it has been written that P-40N NZ3220 "Gloria Lyons" will be displayed at Omaka, but does anyone know what the plan is for what's left of John Smith's P-40E NZ3043? I know the wings were cut off of that one, much like the P-51, but what does remain is also a fantastic time capsule.

Classic Wings states that Avspecs will be receiving all of the Mosquito spare parts that John Smith had collected, and all of the Harvard projects/parts were acquired by the New Zealand Warbirds Association, which hopes to restore to flight at least one of the airframes, while all of the spare parts will help support their fleet of Harvards for years to come.

When you look at the couple of photos above, you can still see the remnants of the fabric patches that were doped over the various "orifices" on the Mosquito and Mustang back in the 50's, to keep dirt/dust out of them when they were put out to pasture/open storage following their military service.

Tue Jul 14, 2020 2:57 pm

JohnTerrell wrote:...

I know it has been written that P-40N NZ3220 "Gloria Lyons" will be displayed at Omaka, but does anyone know what the plan is for what's left of John Smith's P-40E NZ3043? I know the wings were cut off of that one, much like the P-51, but what does remain is also a fantastic time capsule.
...

Retained by Mike Nicholls and John Saunders for rebuild to airworthy, per this update from Mike mid-May.

You can see Gloria Lyons as of mid-June in this segment - Lots of great P-40 stuff in this WONZ Forum Zoom Meet-up!

Edit: WONZ thread on the Collection
https://rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/2796 ... collection

Last edited by ErrolC on Tue Jul 14, 2020 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Tue Jul 14, 2020 3:14 pm

Tue Jul 14, 2020 8:27 pm

Paging Scott, time for some happy Registry updates on P-40N 43-22962/NZ3220, P-40E 41-36410/NZ3043 and Mosquito TE910/NZ2336? (Also change one line on the Mossie: "John Mapua, NZ" to "John Smith, Mapua, NZ".)

Wed Jul 15, 2020 8:45 am

This is so cool! I hope all the aircraft are able to stay in NZ. Kudos and it will be awesome to see future photos of the move and new home for these planes!

Tom P.

Wed Jul 15, 2020 4:24 pm

I can't wait for the shark's mouth to be added to the P-40 so everyone knows what it is.

Wed Jul 15, 2020 8:12 pm

bdk wrote:I can't wait for the shark's mouth to be added to the P-40 so everyone knows what it is.

Tragically one of my best shots of Currawong is during its shark phase!

Dawn sortie by Errol Cavit, on Flickr

Wed Jul 15, 2020 8:36 pm

That's a very nice shot!

Wed Jul 15, 2020 9:06 pm

bdk wrote:I can't wait for the shark's mouth to be added to the P-40 so everyone knows what it is.

Exactly! I suggest that to the lads every Sunday, when I have the privilege of working on Gloria. I can't convince them that nobody will know what it is without a shark's mouth :lol:

Thu Jul 16, 2020 11:48 am

As much as I would selfishly love to see them come to the States, it would be great if they remained in New Zealand. The WW I airplanes guys are doing amazing things and the WW II aircraft are pretty special in their own right. There are plenty of P-40 and Mosquito projects out there if someone has a burning desire to own one. However, the heirs have a right to do what they please with their dad's assets.

Fri Jul 17, 2020 11:20 pm

From what I've gathered (DaveM2 may be able to assist?):
- the two Harvards have been transported to Ardmore Airport, Auckland, with NZ1068 to be restored to airworthy by Nick Sheehan
- the P-40E has gone to Omaka and is to fly with Mike Nicholls and John Saunders
- the P-51D is for sale
- the Vampire parts cache is for sale as a lot
- The Mosquito, P-40N and Tiger Moth ZK-BQB will be conserved and placed on public display at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre

Both P-40s have been at Omaka for a few months and NZ3220's wings arrived this past week.

I never had the chance to met John and a selfish part of me is upset about that - and not being able to see the collection in situ - but the way things have been dispersed has been great to see, particularly the Mosquito and Gloria Lyons going to the OAHC. My big hope is that the Mustang also stays here - currently this is the sole ex-RNZAF Mustang in this country.

ErrolC wrote:

As an aside that's me at middle right in the thumbnail

When watching look for a redhead in a black MOSQUITO shirt.

Sat Jul 18, 2020 12:34 am

[quote="Zac Yates"]From what I've gathered (DaveM2 may be able to assist?):

Both P-40s have been at Omaka for a few months and NZ3220's wings arrived this past week.

Gloria's wings arrived in late February and have now been moved offsite for remedial work.

Sat Jul 18, 2020 6:56 pm

DaveM2 wrote:
Zac Yates wrote:Both P-40s have been at Omaka for a few months and NZ3220's wings arrived this past week.

Gloria's wings arrived in late February and have now been moved offsite for remedial work.

Thanks Dave, I had mixed messages based on what I'd seen on Facebook.

Fri Jul 24, 2020 6:47 pm

Fundraising page for Mosquito restoration for display at OAHC
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/warbird-rescue

To do justice to this great privilege, the Trust needs to send a team of experienced aircraft engineers to carry out the preliminary work of removing the engines and then engage Mosquito experts AvSpecs Ltd to carefully disassemble the major sections, before transporting it all to a hangar at Omaka where the process will be reversed.

The original paint on the Mosquito {TE910/NZ2336} is too poor to provide adequate surface protection so the decision has been made in concert with the family's wishes to sensitively re-coat the aircraft with a protective paint finish in a suitable scheme (details of which will come later).

Once this has been completed the aircraft will be moved into the evocative museum space set aside for it where final detail work will continue over the following few months, with a view to having it fully completed to display standard.

Over the Easter weekend when the Yealands Classic Fighters Airshow takes place at Omaka, the WW2 Dangerous Skies hall is normally closed, since all the flyable aircraft are outside for the airshow. This coming Easter 2021, our plan is to use this temporary space to display the Smith Collection, with the Mosquito joining the Lockheed Hudson already in the museum, along with John’s Tiger Moth and famous ‘Gloria Lyons’ P-40.

And some good news from the unboxing of the two containers of Mosquito parts that have gone to AvSpecs
http://www.facebook.com/Avspecs/videos/ ... =3&theater

From the comments:
Daniel Paul I met John a couple of times and he was a real gent once he realised you were a genuine enthusiast. Is any of this from TE910 or has that all gone straight to Blenheim? Must be enough to look at another rebuild out of that lot though, surely a good chunk could’ve come from one airframe to maintain ID?!

Avspecs Ltd. Daniel Paul we made sure everything needed for John's aircraft was kept aside. We have found the substantial remains of TE881 which is good news.

Avspecs Ltd. Bruce Gordon we definitely have at least one identity. TE881 (NZ2345).

Last edited by ErrolC on Sat Jul 25, 2020 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

New Zealand-John Smith Aircraft collection on the move.

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