VH-TAO   'George Bass'                                        c/n 32

                                              Essendon, 1955.   Poor, unconstraty shot.   I have others, but cluttered with baggage carts etc.
                                              However, Barrie Colledge has kindly provided me with a superb color shot (below) taken at
                                              Canberra in 1957.  By this time the aircraft had been renamed 'Abel Tasman'.  TAA had ordered
                                              a fleet of five Convair 240s in 1948.  They were, in fact, the sixth airline to do so. Although first
                                              in registration sequence, this aircraft was actually the last to arrive, not doing so until 7 March 1949
                                              following a problem in Iceland on its delivery flight.  After a decade of service with TAA it was sold
                                              in the USA as N9313R.  For a full and complete history of this  aircraft go to airline historian Fred
                                              Niven's page at:
                                                         http://www.spiritsofansett.com/history/Niven/niven_convair.htm