VH-ANM
''Yannana'
c/n 18923
Essendon, 1954
There were actually two
VH-ANMs. The above is the second one. The first was a
C-47-DL
serial
number 42-32845 formerly with the 10th Air Force in India. It wound its
way to Australia
after
the war becoming ANA's VH-ANM. It was destroyed in a disastrous
hangar fire at
Mascot,
Sydney on 7 September
1946. (Which is why I don't have a photograph of
it). The photo
immediately below is from Paul
Miller and came from his father's album. I suspect that it depicts
this, the second VH-ANM, although it is still rare in that it shows it
pre white top. Venue and date
unknown. Essendon, circa
1950?
VH-ANM (2) was
built as a C-47A-65-DL with USAAF serial number 42-100460. It
joined ANA
in
1946. In the 1950s it was leased to Queensland Airlines and a
couple of shots of it thusly attired
appear
below. The first was taken at Mascot in 1951, whilst the lower
one is a late Gus Grulke image
(via
Peter Gates), taken slightly later than mine at Eagle Farm, Brisbane,
after the rego had been moved
to
the tail, and the white top deepened. In 1957 it was
registered to Ansett-ANA following the merger
although went immediately to
Butler Airlines who converted it to "Viewmaster" standard and repainted
it
in the new light blue livery as seen in
the image # 5 from the Bob Smith collection.
In 1958 it was re-
registered back to Ansett-ANA and in
1961 went to their Airlines of NSW subsidiary. The shot at the
foot of
the page is by John Hopton and shows it working for the latter branch
at at Bourke, NSW in
June of 1961. Shortly after that
(October 1961) the old DC-3 was seconded to the New Zealand
branch of Ansett as ZK-CAW. After a stint with
Fiji Airways as VQ-FAI it
returned to New Zealand
and was converted
into an adjunct to a McDonald's restaurant! For more details
of this exciting phase
in
the life
of this grand old lady go to:
http://www.kiwiaircraftimages.com/pages/miscdak5.html