Aircraft Identification

[Torres]

I would like to identify an aircraft type in a photograph from a newspaper cutting, but I am way too dumb and stooopid to know how to post the picture here.:\

The photo was taken at Ayres Rock in the Northern Territory (of Australia) either 1939 or 1959 and shows a single radial engine, high wing, tail dragger similar in size etc to a Beaver.

The cutting is from a promotional paper published by the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame at Longreach, Queensland.

Any one who can help please contact me via email [email protected] and I'll email the cutting to you.

For those not familiar with Longreach and the Hall of Fame, it's around 1,000 kilometers west of Brisbane and right opposite the Qantas Founders Museum and the complete Boeing 747-200 donated by Qantas. The Founders Museum includes the original Q.A.N.T.A.S. Limited aircraft hangar built in 1921.

[treadigraph]

Sent you an email Torres, I'll post it here if you like...

Regards

Treadders

[Torres]

tredigraph. Yup. Thanks for the emails. Please post the cutting here as I'm sure someone will be able to confirm.

Certainly looks like this one:

http://www.aerofiles.com/waco-eqc6.jpg

Also see http://www.raafmuseum.com.au/raaf2/html/waco.htm which may even be the same aircraft, as follows:

http://www.raafmuseum.com.au/raaf2/assets/images/waco1.gif

Lets hope the mystery is solved. If so, any guess which year the photo may have been taken, 1939 or 1959?

[treadigraph]

Here it is...

http://www.tpsconsult.co.uk/dump/mysteryplane.jpg

Definitely a Waco and the YQC fits the bill nicely!

Thought it might just be an Avro Commodore, but although they are similar, it isn't!

On the subject of Wacos, aren't those alphabet soup designations just a teensy bit confusing!

Regards

Treadders (Waco devotee, but definitely not the slightest bit expert)

[Torres]

Thanks treadigraph. And thanks to the enthusiast from Brisbane who headed me in the right direction.

To complete the mystery, the caption under the photograph states:

"Was this picture taken in 1939 or 1959? Frank Clune (second from right in the dark shirt) and next to him Bill Harney (third from right) at Ayres Rock. What sort of plane is it? The smart money says it’s a pre War shot. Over to the readers………."

Incidentally, that's definately The Rock (Ayres Rock, now Uluru) in the background.

Any clues?

[PaperTiger]

Frank Clune 1893-1971. In 1959 he was 66, much older than in the photo. Also some google references to him flying round Australia 1937-39, so 1939 it is.

As for Waco designations, all is revealed here (http://aerofiles.com/wacodata.html)

[Fris B. Fairing]

Torres et al

The aeroplane is most likely Adastra's Waco YKS-6 VH-UYD which is known to have been conducting a survey in the region of Ayers Rock in 1940. Read about it on my new Adastra website:

VH-UYD (http://www.adastra.adastron.com/aircraft/waco/vh-uyd.htm)

and also:

The Northern Survey of 1940 (http://www.adastra.adastron.com/projects/northern-1940.htm)

Cheers

[Torres]

Thanks for all the information. Brilliant!! :ok:

And thanks to Fris who may have dated the photograph in August/September 1940 and given a further clue to the people in the photo.

:)

[Torres]

Fris. Another fact has come to light. According to a hand written comment by Frank Clune on the back of another photo, the photo was taken in 1939. Is there any reference to an Adastra Waco being at Alice Springs in that year?

And to add an intrigueing twist, part of the survey may have been to map an area in search of Lasseters Last Gold Find. Gold seems to have been on the agenda from a comment from the 1940 expedition:

"Next we were off to a speck on the map called The Granites, north-west of Alice Springs, which a man called Chapman was trying to bring back into production as a goldfield."

Harry Lasseter disappeared, without trace, in the Gibson Desert in 1930.

Waco VH-UYD apparently still exists and is undergoing a long term restoration in South Australia.