Grumman Avenger in Maroochydore

I nearly crashed my car when I saw this rare beauty at the small airport of Maroochydore.

As a child, i grew up like any other kids dreaming of flying a jet fighter one day. The hobby soon took over, and piles of collectible cards and newspapers cutouts of warbirds from red baron double wings to top gun afterburner. Having a hobby like planes is an expensive dream, even for modeling let alone flying one. Me and another close friend of mine, have an extensive amount of knowledge on planes (he was better). I never talked about it but love to hear someone people ramble on and on about plane as if they know everything. Sometimes it is better to listen and watch fools.

Anyway, after a few weeks, it disappeared from sight before I could take some pictures and that left me cursing my luck. With a little persistence, though, I found a few guys who pointed me to the right direction to snap a few pictures of this marvelous piece of flying machine.

It is a Grumman - Avenger, a torpedo bomber. Initially, in the car,  I thought it is a childhood dream machine Corsair fighter used in the battle of Mid Ways, you know Ba-Ba Black Sheep?. So it was a pleasant discovery. A little bit about Grumman Avenger, used in Battle of Midway, it has 1900hp Wright engine with up to 2000lbs pay load, front, back and side guns, 3 seaters, torpedos & rockets mountable and max speed 276mph, no airbags. Pivotal in turning the tide against the Japanese armada. It is a grunt. Nearly 10000 units were produced, 42 still around and 26 still flying.

This machine raise a lot of curiosity amongst the locals and a quick search over the internet will not reveal any fulfilling results. With a phone call, I found out that it belongs to Steve Searle private collection and brought in for maintenance. Who is Steve Searle? Not quite sure, however, I am more interested in the bird. So lets check the her history. How do we do it?

Each craft has its unique identity as it was assigned to squadron before jumping into missions or sorties. By using zoom lens, we know her name is Blue Lady. And the aircraft serial ID is 337.

After a few dabbles with Google, I found an article written about Blue Lady on 2004 by Jack Morrissey. Blue Lady was built for WWII but missed the war. Before it ended up in California Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, she was with San Diego Naval Air Station North Island then a short stint as fire bomber and sprayer in New Brunswick, Canada then a few private owners before being acquired by Robert "Crash" William. Now it is part of Aussie Steve Searle's Private Aerial Collection.

My boss told me that he saw an aerial fly over by a WWII warplane during the Anzac day, but I was not around to confirm it. Grumman is distinct, could be easily identified by looking at its fuselage and external cockpit area. Would have love to be around.
 

Comments

[kevin]

Impressive
You are a multi-dimentional man with wide interests. This interesting and is very well done. Top marks to you.

[johnny tan]

I thought your only collectable are the porn video tapes..??!!