It was named "City of Townsville" In 1943 the three 260 hp Lycomings were replaced with
two 550 hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp engines, producing the somewhat ugly derivation seen in the
photo at the foot of this entry. At this time the type designation was changed to be Stinson A.2W.
In this shot the aircraft is sporting a war-time fin flash, although in the event, the Stinsons were
never impressed into RAAF service and were transferred to Australian National Airways Pty Ltd
in 1943. Possibly it was intended that they would be impressed, but the RAAF didn't want them.
After all, their safety record wasn't too impressive, even with three engines, let alone two. In fact,
with the monkeying around with the original design that went on, and knowing how fussy DCA were
in those days with weights and balances, c's of g., etc., I am surprised that these conversions were
even issued with C's of A, but there you are, one can never outguess bureaucracy. The photo
immediately below is via Bruce Robinson.
