NEWS IN BRIEF

CATALINA SOLD

The ex-‘Connie’ Edwards Consolidated PBY-6A, N4NC, has been acquired by Scott Glover’s Mid America Flight Museum at Mount Pleasant, Texas. It was flown across the Atlantic by Edwards in 1986 to mark the first crossing of the Atlantic by a Curtiss NC-4 flying boat in 1919.

‘JO’ LANCASTER 1919-2019

John Oliver ‘Jo’ Lancaster DFC, who made the first emergency ejection from a British aircraft when he used a Martin-Baker seat to escape from AW52 flying wing TS363, died on 10 August. He had celebrated his 100th birthday on 4 February this year (see Aeroplane April 2019). Wartime Bomber Command pilot Lancaster was a test pilot with Armstrong Whitworth when his historic ejection occurred on 30 May 1949. BEN DUNNELL

CONVAIR CRASH REPORT OUT

The accident report into the crash of Convair 340 ZS-BRV shortly after take-off from Wonderboom, South Africa, for a test flight on 10 July 2018 indicates — among other factors — that the two highly experienced Australian pilots did not follow checklist procedures after the port engine caught fire. An engineer on the jump seat lost his life, but 18 others survived. The full report can be read at www.caa.co.za.

AVIODROME REVISIONS

A refurbishment of the main exhibition hall at the Aviodrome museum at Lelystad has seen the building divided up into themed sections depicting stages of aviation development in the Netherlands. The fuselage frame of a KLM Fokker F.VIII, PH-AED, salvaged from an accident site in Venezuela in 2001, has also gone on display for the first time.

FW 190 FLIES AGAIN

Flug Werk FW 190A-8/N D-FWAA, which (then registered F-AZZJ) ditched into the Bay of Hyères, France following engine failure on 12 June 2010, flew again at Bremgarten, Germany, on 21 July following rebuild by MeierMotors. The ASh-82-powered machine is owned by Hangar 10, based at Heringsdorf.