VH-BOB  Miles. M65 Gemini 1A                       (c/n  6522)

                              

                                  Above is a Greg Banfield shot of (actually the second) VH-BOB at Bankstown in 1962.   It was
                                  the sole Lycoming powered example and was previously VH-WEK, VH-WEJ, VH-BMV and
                                  G-AKHU.   It was withdrawn from use in 1963 following the DCA decree that wood bonded
                                  aeroplanes would no longer have their CofAs renewed due deterioration in the strength of glued
                                  joints. Immediately below is a take-off from a color slide of it taken by Kevin Kerle (via the Ben
                                  Dennecker collection) also at Bankstown, circa 1961   Below that are a couple of images from
                                  the Geoff Goodall collection showing -BOB in the latter stages of her life in Australia.   She was
                                  stored at a timber mill at Rouse Hill in western Sydney when shot # 3 was taken in 1974.    The
                                  hulk had been tracked down and photographed by the late Mike Vincent.  The aircraft was then
                                  acquired "as is" by the Airforce Association museum group in Perth and flown to West Aussie the
                                  following year by a RAAF C-130 from the nearby Richmond air base.  Finally. image # 4 shows
                                  -BOB dumped outside the AFA museum's workshop on the AFA Estate at Bull Creek, Perth.
                                  Plans to mate the fuselage of VH-GBB with the wings and empennage of -BOB were beyond the
                                  resources of the embryo group, and both Geminis were acquired by vintage aircraft enthusiast Lynn
                                  Forster and stored at his private airfield 'Brooklands" near York WA.  They remained stored inside
                                  his hangar until sold in 2007 to an ambitious English owner, and VH-BOB has now been restored
                                  to the British register as its original registration G-AKHU, pending a complete rebuild.
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