
VH-TAR 'Thomas
Mitchell'
c/n
92
Essendon, 1954.
Delivered in 1949, this aircraft had its name changed
later to 'John Roe' and later still to 'William
Dampier'.
When airlines named aircraft (which, I always thought, gave them a more
personalized
touch) it was common
for new and more modern additions to the fleet to assume the 'pioneer'
names
and hence the older
types got pushed down in the hierarchy. VH-TAR was leased
to Guinea Airways
in 1958, and the
nice color shot below. from the archives of the Civil Aviation
Historian Society of SA
(via Nigel Daw)
shows it in that livery at Parafield. It returned to TAA
and then
was sold in the USA
in 1959.
Its history pretty much then parallels
that of its sister craft VH-TAO and a
full history of it
can be found on
Fred Niven's site at:
http://www.ansettinwa.org/Pages/fredspages/convairs.htm
