New display at RAAF Museum

Flight Journal, Apr 2002 by Hastings, Paul

Ten months of planning, eight months of hard work and a $200,000 (Australian) investment have resulted in a new training-- theme exhibition at the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Museum based at Point Cook, on the Western outskirts of Melbourne.

Titled "Get your boots cleaned and your hair cut-you're in the Air Force now," the new permanent exhibition focuses on the role that training has played in the life of every RAAF serviceman. New aircraft were moved into the museum's propeller-driven aircraft hangar, and much work went into selecting supporting displays that represent different periods in the RAAF's 80-year history.

The theme is appropriate for the Museum, as Point Cook was the birthplace of flight training for the Australian military. Although the display centers on seven aircraft that played pivotal roles in training RAAF aircrew, the focus of the exhibition is much greater than just on pilots and covers the early days of the Australian Flying Corps in WW I up to the current day.

The oldest aircraft in the hangar is a Maurice Farman Shorthorn CFS 20. One of the first military aircraft to be operated at Point Cook, the WW I biplane represents the pioneer age of flight, and it is one of five examples that survives worldwide. An Avro 504K replica-currently being completed in the UK-will represent Australian involvement in WW I as well as the early formative years of the RAAF.

The de Havilland Tiger Moth A17-711-- just rolled out from an extensive restoration 175hp Lycoming-powered Model 76 (prototype NX27772) was successfully demonstrated, and in 1942, the U.S. Army ordered an initial 275 Model 76s (but redesignated as "0-62"). A further order for 1,456 followed, and the future of the redesignated Stinson L-5 Sentinel was assured. Between 1942 and 1945, 4,202 were built.

Frank Huffman owns the pictured Stinson: USAAF 535064 with S/N 4646. It was one of the last built at Stinson's Consolidated Vultee Div. in Wayne (August 1945). It never flew with the military, and it was "surplused out" at Dexter, Michigan, in April 1946. In August 1987, Frank and Betty Huffman from Santa Clara, California, acquired the remains from someone in Yewington, Nevada.

A lengthy rebuild resulted in this superbly restored L-SG; with its 190hp Lycoming 0-435-1 engine, it flew again in April 1997. It is hangared at Frazier Lake Airport, California, and has won the Huffmans several awards at fly-ins and airshows. It is finished in the colors of the 25th Liaison Squadron that served in Korea, where similar L-SGs were used for stretcher-- evacuation duties. It is a standard, stock aircraft, except for its having caliper brakes instead of the more usual hydraulic brakes. The "grasshopper motif" on the nose is traditional for such liaison aircraft, and Stinson L-5 buffs claim it was first used for Stinsons rather than Pipers!

-Geoffrey P. Jones