VH-UKQ Simmonds Spatan
(c/n 5)
These two images are via Dennis
Gray and were taken by his uncleWilliam T. Gray in New Guinea.
Unfortunately the rego is
not identfiable in either one. Above, the Spartan is seen
at Bulldog Aero-
drome in Papua in March
1936, whilst below it is on a beach at Salamaua, New Guinea following
a forced landing there due to engine failure in
December of 1935. 49 Spartans were buillt between
1928
and 1932 at a factory at Woolston, Hampshire, UK (test flown at
Hamble). Four or five
found their way to
Australia. VH-UKQ was first registered to Robert
Bryse and Co Pty Ltd of
Melbourne in
April 1929. Possibly that company was a dealer since it was sold
to Taylor and Ross
Air Transport of Lae, New
Guinea in July of 1929. It then had many owners in New
Guinea until
it was written
off in an emergency landing crash at Goroka, between Bena Bena and
Kaitantu, Eastern
Highlands, New Guinea on 15 April 1942. It was
abandoned since the advancing Japanese Armey
was close at hand. However,
VH-UKQ had one last flight! In early June 1942, USAAF
pilot
Lt. John Feltham is reported to have been injured when his USAAF bomber
made a forced landing
near Kainantu. A
week later he and his crew walked to the deserted trading post at Bena
Bena, where
they repaired the Spartan
and, using motor fuel, flew it out but crashed when unable to climb
above
the mountainous terrain. Lt.
Feltham was badly hurt and trapped in the wreck for five hours.
His
crew carried him out on a
litter
