February 2020 Updates

[Brendan Cowan]

The Auster page updates continue this month.

Entries updated in our RAAF A-11 Taylorcraft Auster page for February 2020 include:

A11-7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31, 32, 34, 40, 53, 54, 55 & 61.

And in our 454 Sqn, RAAF Auster page, some further details have also been added for:

NJ793, NJ902 & NJ923.

There is still much more to include for all airframes and images to add later!

Cheers

(IMG:http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/gallery/albums/Auster/Auster_A11_22.sized.jpg)

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[Brendan Cowan]

Updated details for A35-019, A35-020, A35-021 & A35-022 on our A35 F-35A Lightning II page which have all flown recently.

F-35A A35-022 3 Sqn Fort Worth 31-01-2020 (Photo Keith Snyder)


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[Kas Grigonis]

Ongoing repair of broken page image links.
All pages from CFS to Series 2 A31 inclusive done so far.

More updates in the next few days.

[Brendan Cowan]

In the course of updating the 454 Sqn Auster Page, I also decided to do a complete re-write of the 451 & 454 Sqn Argus page.

This also lead to updating the record for Spitfire PR.VIT BP844.

Some times research can take you on an unexpected path!

It's a fascinating story about the Argus/Spitfire/Auster swaps at 454 Sqn in 1945!


(IMG:http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/gallery/albums/451-Argus/451_Squadron_El_Daba_c_1943_Fairchild_Argus_HK948.jpg)

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[Brendan Cowan]

And of course there has been a major revision to the 454 Sqn Auster page too.

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[Brendan Cowan]

I'm also adding an entry for the Museum of Army Flying's Auster AOP-9 XP285.

Does anyone have any photos of her that we can use?

Looking for both in service in the UK and on display in the museum images.

Cheers



Auster AOP-9 XP285 Woolsington Newcastle UK 1964

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[Brendan Cowan]

Our poor old A21 de havilland DH.94 Moth Minor page has not had a great deal of attention since we first set up the page in 1998!

Acting on a tip off from contributor Cynthja Pappin who is doing a research project for RAAF Amberley, we have updated the entry for A21-26 which it appears was the first aircraft to land there - even before the runway had been completed!

As you can see from the rest of a page - there is still a lot of writing ahead for this page!

I don't know of any images of A21-26, so here's a photo of A21-6 instead with 1 Engineering School at the Melbourne Show Grounds.



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[Brendan Cowan]

While cruising arround the NAA (National Archives of Australia) site - you often run into unexpected (and often very sad) information. This time for me it was a Casualty File for Pilot Officer Alan Gladstone Burt (400408), the only RAAF member of a 61 Sqn RAF Avro Manchester (L7396) that was lost with all aboard on return from a mission to Brest on 31 January 1942.

I've added an entry for Manchester L7396 to our Avro Manchester page.

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[Brenden S]

Well done to all those who have done the research and updates.

[Brendan Cowan]

Thanks Brenden - your support is very much appreciated.

[Kas Grigonis]

Housekeeping:
Broken images on site pages are fixed for all ADF and PNGDF pages.
This includes:
CFS
AFC
Series One
Series Two
Series Three
Australian Army Aviation
RAN
Other ADF operated aircraft
WWII RAAF units within the RAF
Air Force Cadets
Captured Aircraft
NEI Aircraft in Australia
Papua New Guinea Defence Force
and all sub pages.

Page titles were also corrected for a number of the captured types so they display with the correct name in browser tabs/windows, and I also fixed a reported spelling error on the Peregrine page.

[Brendan Cowan]

And a new page added covering the little that we know of 450 Sqn's involvment with some captured Macchi C.200 Saetta aircraft at Grottaglie airfield, Italy in September 1943.



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