© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Planespotters on the job in World War 2

ONE of Australia's military problems in World War 2 was trying to keep track of the movements of large numbers of aircraft over the giant land-mass. Planes, both friendly and hostile, crossed the skies at all hours, and it was important to try to keep tabs on as many of them as possible. A big part of the solution was the Volunteer Air Observers Corps, an organisation of thousands of civilian men, women and children who spent untold hours in observation posts they built on top of houses, on handyman-created towers in backyards, in the middle…

Continue ReadingPlanespotters on the job in World War 2
Read more about the article Ice cream treat saved them from fighter crash
Aerial view of the crash site. A truck is parked outside Mona Bradley's house at 60 Glebe Road, where the doomed pilot's body landed.

Ice cream treat saved them from fighter crash

Mona Bradley hardly ever splashed out on treats for her grandsons. Having lived through The Great Depression and World War 2, she was one of a frugal generation. So it was unusual when, on August 16, 1966, she took the two boys, Peter and Richard, across the road from her house to a nearby ice cream parlour. Richard Bradley remembers the night of the Sabre crash, August 16, 1966. Mona's house was at the back of a converted former cycle shop at 60 Glebe Road, The Junction, an inner suburb of the industrial city of Newcastle,…

Continue ReadingIce cream treat saved them from fighter crash
Read more about the article The runaway plane and a midair collision: a bad month at Bankstown Airport, August 1955
Melbourne Argus clipping of the pilotless plane incident

The runaway plane and a midair collision: a bad month at Bankstown Airport, August 1955

August 1955 was an eventful and tragic month at Sydney's Bankstown Airport. On August 12 an Auster monoplane (VH-AAL) and a Tiger Moth biplane (VH- APF) collided about 100m from the ground as they came in to land at the airport, killing three men and injuring another. As they struck, the two light planes locked together and fell into thick scrub about 100m from Milperra Road. The Auster belonged to the Kingsford Smith Aviation Flying School and was piloted by 26-year-old instructor Jaroslav Kosner. He and his passenger, student pilot Edward Cowley, 45, were killed, as…

Continue ReadingThe runaway plane and a midair collision: a bad month at Bankstown Airport, August 1955
×
×

Cart