CAC Wackett Trainer – Aviation Historical Society of Australia

DerekB30/11/202223/11/2024

Australian aviation history digital archive

In its mission to preserve and promote Australia's aviation heritage, the AHSA hosts the following digital archives. Click on the image to go to...

DerekB27/04/202204/06/2023

The Aircraft Projects of Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation

This new book by author and AHSA member Joe Vella has just been published (April 2022). Joe began writing this book in 1983 when...

DerekB29/09/202027/12/2022

Australian-built Aircraft and the Industry (Vol 2) by Keith Meggs

The latest book released by author Keith Meggs Volume 2 of this encyclopaedic work (containing only one chapter, being chapter 15, spread across two...

1942 Junkers G31 VH-UOW was impressed into RAAF service on 30 January 1942 as A44-1. Just nine days earlier, Guinea Airways’ three other G31s had been destroyed on the ground during a Japanese air raid on Bulolo. VH-UOW survived only because it was in the air at the time. Source: Aircraft of the RAAF.

1942 On 30 January 1942, Pilot Officer John Gorton (future Australian Prime Minister) was flying a Hurricane of No 232 Squadron RAF when Japanese Zero fighters damaged his aircraft over Singapore. During the ensuing crash landing on Bintan Island, south-east of Singapore, the Hurricane overturned and he suffered facial injuries when his head hit the instrument panel. He was recovered by an RAF launch and was being evacuated to Jakarta when his ship was sunk. He recuperated in Australia. Source: Aircraft of the RAAF.

1991 The last of 25 additional Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters assembled by prime contractor Hawker de Havilland, A25-225, was delivered to the Army on 30 January 1991, ahead of schedule. These helicopters were ordered as Batch Two in May 1987. Source: Aircraft of the RAAF.