VH-AGB Canadian Vickers (PBV-1A) Canso A                 (c/n  CV359)

                                                            

                               This aircraft was the Canadian-built equivalent of the Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina.  It entered into
                               service with the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1944 with the serial number 11055.   It was civilianized
                               in late 1948 as CF-GKI-X and converted as a survey aircraft for Kenting Aviation of Toronto.    In
                               1953 it commenced an aeromagnetic survey of Papua from a base on the Kikoni River.  It returned to
                               Canada and was sold to Hunting Aero Surveys in the U.K.   Flown back out to Australia in 1956, it
                               became VH-AGB with Adastra Hunting Geophysics        The shot above was taken at Bankstown in
                               September 1962  by Chris O'Neill,, while my shot immediately below was at Bankstown, circa 1957. 
                               Finally, at the bottom of the page is a photo by Jeff Atkinson taken in Tasmania circa 1958 when the
                               aircraft visited Cambridge Airport, Hobart on a survey mission.  The Hudson in the background was
                               VH-SMM.    -AGB was sold in 1962 to TAA who cannibalized it for spares for VH-SBV.  The hulk
                               was finally broken up at Bankstown in 1967.   For a complete history of this Canso go to Ron Cuskelly's
                               'The Lockheed File' site at:
                                                                     http://www.adastra.adastron.com/aircraft/catalina/vh-agb.htm