Big Bipe 1976

[John Dupre]

Here are a couple of photos of the first Antonov 2 Colt imported to the U.S. Taken at Hampton Airfield, Northampton, NH in June of 1976.It was imported from Poland by Geert Frank then of Kensington, NH. He was one of the first real characters I ever knew of in aviation. He had quite a little business going in the mid 70's importing Tiger Moths, Fiesler Storchs and Messerschmitt 108s from Europe. The story is that he imported the Bf 108 that Cliff Robertson owned. His operation was located at a nice little grass strip on Plum Island in Massachusetts until the whole thing was destroyed in a hangar fire.

[John Dupre]

Here is image #2. I am still getting the hang of Photobucket.

[img]IMG]http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp291/JDupre_2008/hpqscan0001.jpg[/img][/img]

[John Dupre]

I don't get it. Here goes again[img][img]http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp291/JDupre_2008/hpqscan0002.jpg[/img][/img]

[JDK]

Hi John,
Nice pics.

Your first pic problem was you'd deleted a '[' from the [IMG] tag at the front of the first photo. I've corrected it for you.

And a general note - if you have a problem with a post, you can edit it by clicking on the 'edit' button on the top right of your post, rather than keeping trying with new posts!

HTH.

[kenlyco]

[Jerry O'Neill]

Two points of interest. That An-2 spent some time in Ellington, CT at the airport there in 1977. I think they were trying to use it for the skydiving club there.

Also, Cliff Robertson's ME-108 was destroyed in a hanger fire in Ansonia, CT, not on Plum Island. The Ansonia Airport is long gone, but that is where the fire was.

Thanks for posting those AN-2 pics. I never had a camera with me when I was near Ellington.
Jerry

[tom d. friedman]

russian fugly but as tough & versatile as they come!!

[John Dupre]

Poor writing on my part. I didn't mean to imply that Robertson's 108 was based at Plum Island, I never knew Robertson's 108 was lost in a fire, too bad. Frank's operation was at Plum Island. There was a Nord 1002 there in 1975. I think it was a 1002 in any event it had the 6 cylinder Renault engine.

[warbirdcrew]

Da comrade, An-2 strong like ox, tough like... russian bear.



I An-2s

[airknocker]

The particular AN-2 pictured was flown across the Atlantic to NH. Geert Frank was quite a character and was responsible for importing a small fleet of aircraft from Europe: a Fiesler Storch, Tiger Moths, Harvards, ME-108, AN-2, L-4, F-24, T-34 and numerous motorcycles. Prior to his operation at Plum Island, he worked with Bob Fargo (Fargo Air Service) at Nashua, NH. This operation was the hangout for taildragger pilots and local students from NEAI ( presently Daniel Webster College) who still appreciated fine vintage aircraft.