The collection is
broken down into six main groups:
1. Australian Civil (VH-)
2. New Zealand
3. U.S, (N,NC,NX,NL) Civil
4. Canadian Civil
5. Rest of the World:
The Caribbean & Latin
America
Europe
Africa
Asia/South Pacific
6. Military
Aircraft
< Ed Coates at the Airways Museum, Melbourne in 2006
More about this site from Ed Coates:
The basic criterion for inclusion in this collection is for the aircraft to have been registered before December 31, 1970 as there are now a tremendous number of photographers who have produced contemporary photographs online of aircraft registered from the 1970s on.
My own selection of Australian (VH-) shots were all taken in the 1940s and 1950s, and as such depict what today would be classed as 'Classic' or antique aircraft. After that time frame I emigrated to the USA, so you won't find many VH- photos from my own camera lens in the 1960-1980 era. However, after I had mounted my own images I decided to assemble and edit shots of other enthusiasts in the "post Ed Coates" era. To this end I am greatly indebted many photographers, and in particular Geoff Goodall, Greg Banfield and David Carter for allowing me to share in their vast collections. Additionally, there are several shots taken by my good friend Richard Maclean and also his brother, Barry. Like myself, both have now retired. Richard led an interesting career flying for an air ambulance company and also flying Metros and Saabs for Kendell Airlines. Barry spent his career with the Australian Customs Service at Essendon (at first) and then, of course, at Tullamarine. Richard and I worked together at (what was then) the Department of Civil Aviation in Melbourne. I have also been greatly assisted by Phil Vabre of the Civil Aviation Historical Society & Airways Museum, and by Peter Gates in Brisbane, Barrie Colledge in Melbourne and Ian W. O'Neill in the U.K for much of the Auster material. I continue to welcome contributions from whatever source. To that end I have obtained permission from most of the State Library collections in Australia to show their images and have been assisted in finding many of these rare gems through the sleuth-work of Graeme Parsons, for which I am extremely grateful. In the case of those images from the vast selection from John Hopton, these are identified as being from 'The Collection' followed by John's file number. Full credit is, of course, always given to any contributor.
As an interesting side note: I have managed to assemble some 80% of all the VH-U registered machines. Not bad, considering the last original series registration was issued some 70 years ago!
The New Zealand collection was taken mainly in the summers of 1954 and
1955, and I am also indebted to David Molesworth for providing many of
Jim Dyson's shots of the same era. I traded extensively with Ken
Meeham in this period and many of his efforts appear. Finally, along
the way several other images have been added from other sources and for
these I am thankful. Full credit is, naturally, always
given.
Although I have completed my own
Australian and New Zealand collections, I continue to receive
photographs which are
'in the period' (namely from the beginning of time to about 1970) on an
almost daily basis and will add these as I get them. In fact, the
website title is now a bit misleading inasmuch as a fairly significant
percentage of the photos were not taken by me at all. Clearly I
cannot (or don't want to) change the website name (just as Ron Dupas
cannot change 1000aircraftphotos.com, which is now approaching
6,000 photos). I could rationalize it, I suppose, by saying that
I have assembled the collection!
Although military aircraft are not really within my sphere of interest, I do have a small collection of historic machines in the 1920-1960 era. I decided, now that the bulk of my civil collection has been displayed, to put them out here (Section 6). I shall not, however, change the titling on this page since 90% of this site is devoted to civil aircraft.
A word of warning: I have scanned the images only at low resolution so they won't be suitable for doing anything with, other than viewing. If you need clearer images, or any other data regarding these aircraft, please email me at eddiecoates@msn.com.
As of July 2019 the Civil Aviation Historical Society Inc. (Australia) has taken over running this website. It will be maintained largely 'as is', as a tribute to the life's work of Ed Coates, and the many photographers and contributors who have made this important historical resource possible. You can check out our main website at www.airwaysmuseum.com