Fairey "firefly"

Flight Journal, Apr 2003 by Meal, Xavier

In 1994, former U.S. Navy pilot Eddie Kurdziel, now a Northwest Airlines captain, traveled to Australia to inspect a 60-percent-restored Fairey Firefly that had been advertised for sale in "Trade-a-Plane." Satisfied with what he saw, he had it shipped to Ray Middleton's Q.G. Aviation of America to be restored to airworthiness.

Fairey Firefly WB518 was one of the first 10 MK VIs built, but it still retains the earlier fuselage of the MK V. It was originally delivered to the Royal Australian Navy's 817 Squadron. It exchanged its aircraft for those of 816 Squadron for duty in Korea. After being retired from service, WB518 ended up on a pole in Griffith, New South Wales, where it served as a memorial to airmen. Twenty-five years later, an Australian organization purchased the damaged wreck of Firefly WD828 and arranged it swap for WB518's fuselage.

Early in the process, Kurdziel made serious decisions about how the aircraft was to be restored. It would not be just a flyable warbird; it would be a flying time capsule as well as a flying museum. This necessitated "undoing" all of the previous restoration work. Tim Fries, the aircraft's chief restorer, made Kurdziel's ideas become a reality. As Ray Middleton points out, "One small, but very important, point was the decision to use British [AGS] hardware. It would have been easy-and a lot less expensive-to utilize American hardware, which in itself would not have compromised the safety of the aircraft. I would always go on about how much better the individual parts and sub-assemblies looked with the correct hardware installed. Kurdziel became an AGS fanatic and insisted on its use throughout."

And so, during the next eight years, Kurdziel scoured the world to find and buy or trade for the parts he needed to make the restoration authentic. Only a few concessions were made to modernity to ensure that flight-safety considerations were met. For example, inside the original fuse boxes are micro circuit breakers-all labeled as in a more modem aircraft-but they do not show from the outside. The modern radios are all removable, and a substitute original panel covers their space.

Years of planning, research and hard work finally paid off when master British warbird painter Ron Mahle applied the final touch. The reborn fighter represents Firefly WB377, which was loaned to RAN 817 Squadron by the Royal Navy for duty aboard the Royal Australian Navy's carrier HMAS Sydney in Korea.

On April 6, 2002, Don Sigournay, former commanding officer of the Royal Navy Historic Flight in the UK, made the overhauled Vintage V-12's Rolls-Royce Griffon roar to life for the aircraft's first flight. It flew with only a few minor glitches-not a bad showing after eight years and 40,000-plus hours of work by hundreds of contributors.

In the summer of 2002, Kurdziel's WB518 was the Post-WW II Warbird Grand Champion at the EAA's Air Venture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and it earned the Rolls-Royce National Aviation Heritage trophy and the People's Choice awards at the Reno Air Races.

-Xavier Meal