Another Kiwi Mosquito

[India Four Two]

Treasure trove of hidden historic planes, including rare WWII Mosquito, to see the light

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/121990112/treasure-trove-of-hidden-historic-planes-including-rare-wwii-mosquito-to-see-the-light

[jolihokistix]

Wonderful stuff. Many thanks.

[GeeRam]

FB.VI TE910, built by Standard Motors, and sent to the RNZAF as NZ2336 in April 1947. Smith bought it direct from the RNZAF when they retired all their Mosquitos in 1956, and it has been sitting in that shed ever since, along with a P-51D and 2 x P40's and loads of spares and parts. Smith died last year.
People had been trying to buy that Mossie for decades without success. Very people were even allowed to see it and the other stuff in his collection.

[Islandlad]

Originally Posted by GeeRam

FB.VI TE910, built by Standard Motors, and sent to the RNZAF as NZ2336 in April 1947. Smith bought it direct from the RNZAF when they retired all their Mosquitos in 1956, and it has been sitting in that shed ever since, along with a P-51D and 2 x P40's and loads of spares and parts. Smith died last year.
People had been trying to buy that Mossie for decades without success. Very people were even allowed to see it and the other stuff in his collection.

What is the going rate for a P51D or a P40 in barn condition?

This looks like a well known collection waiting to come up for sale.

Anthing else out there waiting for the owners to pass on?

[GeeRam]

Originally Posted by Islandlad

What is the going rate for a P51D or a P40 in barn condition?

This looks like a well known collection waiting to come up for sale.

Only one of the P-40's has been sold, or acquired by a couple of guys in NZ. The Smith family while not being aviation knowledgable, are aware of the legacy that John Smith has left, and they want to retain quite a bit of it in the family and keep as much of it all as is possible in NZ. At the moment, the Mosquito, P-51 and one of the P-40's and John's Tiger Moth are being retained by the Smith family in ownership albeit to be displayed and looked after by the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre. All the Harvard projects and parts have been acquired by the New Zealand Warbirds Association which hopes to get at least one composite aircraft airworthy from all the various bits and part projects....and the huge quantity of Harvard spares will keep their current airworthy fleet in the air for some time to come.
It needs to be remembered that the Mosquito, both P-40's and the P-51 were all cut to transport them to the shed where they've been (the Mosquito fuselage as well as the wings were cut off and re-spliced) and the P-51 wings were saw cut outboard of the u/c.
John Smith collected a HUGE amount of parts for various aircraft types over the years, some 20+ containers of stuff, which is all being collated at the moment, among them large quantities of Vampire parts, Seahawk, Walrus, P-51, Hudson, Mosquito, Harvard, Airspeed Oxford and P-40 bits.
All the Mosquito parts and spares are going to Avspecs, which is great news of course. The interesting thing I have found out is that in the Smith collection was two complete Bristol Hercules engines and other Hercules parts, which have gone to the Bristol engine Society at Omaka. So is that the source of the news that TFC have finally found a source of engines last year for their Beau project...?? Seems to much of a coincidence as the news as quoted was they were from NZ.

[India Four Two]

A press release from the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre:

https://www.omaka.org.nz/news.html

[KiwiBoyZac]

Dispersal of the collection is well underway:
- the two Harvards have been transported to Ardmore Airport, Auckland, with NZ1068 to be restored to airworthy by Nick Sheehan
- the P-40E has gone to Omaka and is to fly with Mike Nicholls and John Saunders
- the P-51D is for sale
- the Vampire parts cache is for sale as a lot
- The Mosquito, P-40N and Tiger Moth ZK-BQB will be conserved and placed on public display at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre

Both P-40s have been at Omaka for a few months and NZ3220's wings arrived this past week.

I never had the chance to met John and a selfish part of me is upset about that - and not being able to see the collection in situ - but the way things have been dispersed has been great to see, particularly the Mosquito and Gloria Lyons going to the OAHC. My big hope is that the Mustang also stays here - currently this is the sole ex-RNZAF Mustang in this country.