Temora Aviation Museum

[den]

The trouble with the museum is that without a tripod the photos need a flash, and don't come out very well.

Cessna 02. This plane (and its pilot) has 4000 combat hours as FAC in Viet Nam. It was owned by the USAF but flown by an RAAF pilot, hence the red kangaroo. What you can't quite see is a white sillouhette of Snoopy sitting on the 'roo and holding a rocket.


Canberra Bomber. These bombers only have a 2 man crew: Pilot and navigator/bom aimer. Starting this plane on showdays is a big crowd pleaser. It uses a one-shot gas generator to spin the engines up to 2000rpm in under a second. There is much black smoke and the crowd cheers.


One of the Cessna Dragonflies.


The sharp end of the Dragonfly.


The gun mounted in the Dragonfly coud fire up to 6000 rounds per minute.


Gloster Meteor. These were the RAAF's first jet fighters after WW2. This meteor saw service in Korea, and is the last flyable single-seater (ie not a trainer).


Ex-RAAF Vampire. Vampires replaced the Gloster Meteor as the RAAF fighter


Mk8 Spitfire. This plane was crated and ready for shipment when WW2 ended. It was sold to a civillian for 50 pounds and used as a private plane for many years. There is no sound like a V12 Merlin in a Spitfire. The name of the plane ("Grey Nurse") is painted over the fuel tank. This is why you see cockpit fires in The Battle Of Britain and other movies. Mustangs had their fuel tanks behind the cockpit.


A Saber being rebuilt to flying condition. The museum is taking its time to do this because they don't have a runway they can land the plane on. It could take off at Temora, but it can't land. The new 2km long runway is under construction.


The other dragonfly undergoing maintenance.

Comments

[hafoc.livejournal.com]

Looks like your Cessna 02 is a military version of what they called the Super Skymaster. Or Mixmaster. Four-seat twin engine civil light transport, designed with front and rear engines like that to make it idiot simple for inexperienced pilots to fly if one of the engines went out. "Center-Line Thrust!" the ads in my Dad's Flying Magazine would say.

They were far from high performance, as they were anything but aerodynamic. The original Skymasters were so simplified they didn't even have retractable landing gear; that came with the Super version. But they accomplished their mission of designing something with benign engine-out handling characteristics. To the point that Super Skymaster pilots, according to some of the articles I read, would sometimes feather the forward engine and cruise on the rear alone, to save gas and reduce noise. (For some weird reason the plane was also a knot or two faster on the rear engine than on the forward one.)

What really killed them in the end was that there was no way to stretch them. They were kind of complex and expensive for a four-seater.

I vaguely remembered hearing they'd seen military use, but thanks for telling me (or reminding me) just what that was.

[jamesb]

Yes, the Cessna O-2A and O-2B "Skymaster" are the military versions of the Cessna Model 337 Super Skymaster.

The rear engine, tail booms, and wings of the Cessna 337 were also used in a couple of flying car conversions.