The Little World

I’ve been reading about the donation of WU 16 – a Lancaster patrol aircraft of the Aeronavale to Australia in 1962.

The story is detailed elsewhere so do go google it up. It seems to have a number of amusing elements; requests from the local RAAFA for a time-expired Lancaster – refusal by the French – then the business of looking for a new fighter for the RAAF and the involvement of Dassault in supply of the Mirage III. Muffled sounds offstage and presumably telephone calls between embassies, factories, and service bases.

The offer of the Lanc eventually came through but the price asked was excessive. Then it wasn’t but the transport costs were. Then they were made to disappear and the Aeronavale just asked for a hotel room for the crew and passage back to New Caledonia.

Eventually – 1962 – WU 16 was sent from the east to the west, calling at airports on the way. Fortunately enthusiasts took pictures of it on the journey and when it arrived. A number of people took pictures of it out at Perth airport when it was parked in front of Jimmy Woods’ Mosquito.

Interesting titbit – it seems the French didn’t fly it with guns as a sub-hunter in the Pacific but dug them out of stores and bolted them on for the flight to WA. Presumably the locks were in a bag somewhere to prevent someone from succumbing to the temptation to loose off at Adelaide as they flew by.

The plane is said to have circled Perry Lakes Stadium while the Commonwealth games were on but it was trucked down Leach Highway backwards when the RAAFA took it to the Bull Creek Museum. Painted up like a wartime bomber, it is the centrepiece of the museum. If you pay a big fee you can sit at the controls and imagine yourself dropping 4000lb cookies on Adelaide.