How many aircraft have flown under the Harbour bridge
 

I was talking with, of all people, my soon to be 12 year old daughter, about low flying and she asked "have you flown under the Harbour bridge?" To which I replied "no" and then she asked "has anyone?" It got me thinking. So I know the Lancaster has, Dick Smith in VH-DIK and I have seen a photo of a tigermoth out at Luskintyre flying under the bridge (don't know the story). I seem to recall it was a fairly regular occurrence in WWII but if anyone has a definitive list it would allow me to look very knowledgeable in front of my daughter who loves flying!!!

Any help appreciated.

Cheers
CB

Not sure about the Harbour Bridge. A few years ago someone flew under the Eiffel Tower in a V35 Bonanza.




Sorry for thread drift.

Oh yeah, heaps.
Many such flights don't appear in official records, despite having been witnessed by many people.

The best that I know of was a flight of 24 Wirraways. A Sunderland flying boat has also done it.
I witnessed a flight of RAN Wessex helicopters do it in formation some years back.
The list goes on and on..

There's 49 metres of clearance under the deck of the bridge at high tide.
.

Unsure of the time, aircraft type or even veracity of the story, but once heard from an old RAAF type that someone once flew under it at speed, pulled up and completed a loop, the bottom of which was flown again, under the Bridge!:eek::eek:

Seem to remember it being said that it may have been a Beaufighter.:hmm:

Which wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

The most recent unlawful event that I am aware of occurred in May 1975, a pilot flew his Tiger Moth under The Bridge as a tribute to the passing of Sid Marshall. Sid was an Australian pioneer of aviation, the pilot who flew the Tiger is still operating a successful aviation business at Bankstown. To the best of my knowledge the guy still owns and flys the Tiger, having had his licence suspended for a period of time after performing his misdemeanour.

Pilot flies under a bridge too far - BreakingNews - http://www.smh.com.au

From back in 2004. From memory there's a pprune thread about it somewhere as well.

On 14 May 1942 three KNILM aircraft flew under the Bridge once in each direction. The "Bridge" formation was led by Captain Frans Van Breemen in DC-2 PK-AFK followed by Capt Peter Deenik in DC-3 PK-ALW and Captain Dirk Rab (with John Gyzemyter as Flight Engineer) in DC-5 PK-ADC.

The pilots were as skilled as any you would find but they were reprimanded as it was feared that their feat would inspire less skilled pilots to attempt it, as indeed several did during the war.

DC-3 PK-ALW is now preserved at the Queensland Air Museum as VH-ANR. I used to enjoy reassuring John Gyzemyter that his record of having flown under the Sydney Harbour Bridge twice in a DC-5 would never be broken.

Rgds

Pinky - re the over and under routine. Goya Henry would be your man.

The most recent documented occurrence was the Skyfox Gazelle as noted above.

Must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

Those in the know suggest if you are going to do it, do it on April 1st so that when Joe Public calls 000, they might not believe him.

Down under..
 

the bridge.

We now need a C 17 to do a pass under... videoed for the news, to help educate people in Brisbane and elsewhere that large low flying aircraft do not constitute a hazard to tall buildings, knock wings off and fall into the water !!:ok:

I have done it, and all I was worried about was somebody dropping something onto my rotor disc.

It was when I was flying for the police, and we were looking for a "floater" off a ferry. Passed under the bridge several times, a weird feeling to have an object over the top of a rotor disc.

And Pinky - I have heard that the famous ah...ah...ah..stuttering pilot Chris Braund did exactly that in his Mustang. He wanted to over fly KSA, but Tower told him to "Make an orbit at the Harbour Bridge", but his orbit was vertical, not horizontal.

Didn't Cap'n Bloggs do it in a Mirage in a former life? :}

With the opening of the Opera House we (military) did a formation flypast under the bridge. Can't recall the number of aircraft in the formation, other than to say "quite a few".

Either my google skills are deteriorating, or pilots were uncharacteristically quiet about their plans - there seem to be remarkably few photos of the feat in public circulation.

Thanks for that Ascend Charlie.:ok: Now remember hearing or reading of the same incident.

If it is not a true story, well it should've been!!:E

Presumably* in an amphibian, you could legally line up for an approach to land and then do a go-around...



*I don't know much about this subject - can you tell...?

i have a picture somewhere of my grandfather flying a tiger moth between the growing arches of the harbour bridge, long before they were completed into a full arch. just need to find it again.

A little history

Under the Bridge | airscape magazine

20 Oct 1973 Us heading for under the bridge at 2:20. Not particularly good video, and doesn't show all the aircraft.

I flew a hushpuppy under the SH bridge... in the SIM! :}

It'll soon be 48.98 if we don't re-introduce a carbon tax quick sticks :E

When I was a young teenager Tricky Dick sucked me right in when he took a 'Jumbo' under the bridge. Of course it was a circus elephant on a barge.

I was bored in the Gold Coast so took my 14yo son for a fly at the Coolangatta airport A320 sim. only paid for 30min but when they realised I could fly, stayed for 90min and included an under harbour bridge flight. So for the OP, a sim could be a fun adventure for your daughter and give her some hands on flying!

I believe one person who has flown under the Sydney Harbour Bridge is Sydney businessman Phil Dulhunty. He had told me had done it once but in his own words he has done it half a dozen times.
Phil was one time chairman of the Seaplane Pilots Association and the association's newsletter of 2009 has some recollection
http://www.seaplanes.org.au/Newslett...20-Aug09-f.pdf

Phil is now 91 but for many years has been actively involved in securing and returning a Catalina to the air. He is currently (and still) the Chairman of the Catalina Flying Memorial. They found and purchased one in Portugal, returned it to Australia and now doing the hard bits in funding its restoration to fly again.
About Catalina Flying Memorial

Folks,
Then Squadron Leader Peter Issacson flew Lancaster Q for Queenie under the bridge in 1943.
He flew this aircraft from the UK via the US and Canada on a bond raising drive, becoming the first pilot to fly from UK to Australia via the west, surprisingly enough.
As an aside, he arrived in Sydney on his 26th birthday, having completed one tour with 460 RAAF, then another tour with Pathfinder Force. I still have the newspaper cutting from the Sydney Morning Herald for that day, preserved by my late mother.
Tootle pip!!
PS: Orbiting the bridge vertically was not the only cunning stunt Chris Braund got up to in a P-51D. He was, literally, a legend in his own lifetime at East West Airlines, before he moved to North Queensland.
PS2: Flying a cockpit (sorry, Flight Station) full of guests under the bridge was SOPs at one particular airline, needless to say, a B747 fits easily. Flying under the Gladesville bridge is a bit harder, it has a bit of scenery quite close, it is not a straight run up. But a B737 fits just fine.

Sid Marshall funeral: City fly by saw a few strange formation antics.


CAsA advise those persons are obliged to surrender to the nearest office by COB today, Friday 13th November 2015. Failure to do so will result in further flogging of the industry until a signed admission of guilt is obtained.


For all our sakes, give yourself up!

My grandpa was the first and we still have the newspaper clipping!
 

My grandpa (now deceased) Tom Woolsey flew under the bridge with a buddy in a small rental. I still to this day wish I knew who the other pilot was. I grew up with my grandpa in McAllen and now reside in corpus and every time I drive over I think about that.

Sydney Harbour Bridge Alex, not the miniature one in Corpus Texas....
Good effort for grandpa though!
I know a guy in Sacramento who says he and a buddy flew under the Golden Gate bridge one time, and they just kept going - did not stick around to see what the result was.

Somewhere I have a few photos, probably of Ascend Charlie , faffing around under the Sydney Harbour bridge a few years back. Scuttlebutt was that the change of Harbour Master resulted in a flying ban under the bridge some 20+ years ago, with him threatening to close all shipping movements should an aircraft be seen under the coat 'anger.

Meanwhile the West Gate Bridge was first flown under when it was within Essendon CTA, rumour has it that the recently departed Ben Buckley may have been in the aircraft? I was the first under the Bolte Bridge, and my AOC Dispensation allowed me to fly under that and the Westgate when conducting filming or photography operations: I always had at least one passenger with a camera to legalise the adventure :p

Polair has.

Henry Goya!
 

Knew Henry - in fact we were roommates in Lae 'houssic' (??) in 1960s, Henry was by then a skipper on a vessel plying the Sepik.
A real character - believe his spouse was a very well respected Sydney girls college principal?

Was that in 2007? If so I think I may have some photos of you!

Here is a good place to find the evidence!


https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/cate...rbour%20bridge

Nahh, it would have been 1983 or 1984. But put the picture up anyway, good to look at.

I would if I could but the forum software says I need more posts