I came across this article about a a Supermarine Stranraer forthe Shearwater Aviation Musuem. Does anyone have any additional information on its recovery?
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/Commun/ml- ... sp?id=4959
A very rare bird of war has come home to roost in Nova Scotia.
Earlier this fall, John Webber and Duncan Mason, the engineering team at Shearwater Aviation Museum (SAM), travelled to Canada’s west coast to take possession of the wreckage of a former Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Supermarine Stranraer (a.k.a. the Stranny), donated to SAM by salvage business proprietor Bill Thompson, of Pender Harbour, B.C.
The aircraft, tail number 915, was in service with the RCAF until 1945, when it was sold to Queen Charlotte Airways. It crashed at Belize Inlet, 402 kilometres north of Vancouver, in 1949. The fuselage section that includes the cockpit has never been retrieved from the bottom of the inlet, but the main fuselage, wings and tail section were recovered. The team’s task was to move these pieces of wreckage, one load at a time, from Pender Harbour to the Comox Air Force Museum at 19 Wing Comox. There, the SAM engineers prepared the wreckage for transport by train to 12 Wing Shearwater, where it arrived in late November.
The Stranraer’s historical ties to Nova Scotia are strong and deep. Canadian Vickers, under licence from Supermarine, built 40 Strannies in Montréal. Initially, RCAF Station Dartmouth, now 12 Wing Shearwater, was their home. A Stranny sortie from Dartmouth September 10, 1939, was most likely the RCAF’s first wartime mission – Squadron Leader Len “Birch” Birchall took off in Stranraer 907 from Eastern Passage at dawn on the first day of the war. (He would later be dubbed“The Saviour of Ceylon” by Winston Churchill for his role in the sighting of the Japanese Fleet, resulting in the saving of modern day Sri Lanka from invasion.)
The Stranny was a twin-engine, biplane, generalreconnaissance flying boat that carried a crew of six. Its armament comprised three Lewis machine-guns in the bow, dorsal and tail turrets and a maximum bomb-load of 454 kilograms. Through service ranging from antisubmarine warfare to search and rescue, the aircraft earned a reputation for ruggedness and reliability.
The Stranraer will be the first RCAF aircraft in the museum’s collection, which consists of vintage Royal Canadian Navy aircraft. Documents and manuals will be collected and researched thoroughly before the reassembly begins. “If you look at the pictures of it, the Stranraer is made of a combination of aluminum, stainless steel, wood and fabric materials,” says SAM curator Christine Hines.“As a museum, we are in the business of restoration and preservation. To maintain the aircraft after it has been reassembled, we have to consider such details as where in the museum it will be displayed and environmental conditions such as the relative humidity and lighting.”
Restored, the Stranny will measure 16.6 metres in length and 6.6 m in height, with a wingspan of 30 m (and, if it could fly, a maximum take-off weight of 8 618 kilograms), so another issue will be available space on the display floor.
The historical value of this aircraft is immeasurable. Restored and sitting on SAM’s display floor, the Stranny will bring to life another chapter in the story of maritime aircraft that have flown from Shearwater. From the early days of the Second World War to present-day operations, the museum is keeping CF aviation history alive and vibrant, one piece at a time.
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but I finally finished it. 