VH-CBU  de Havilland D.H.89A Dragon Rapide            (c/n   6530)

                                 

                                     Two images by Brian Baker (above and below) taken on a very dull summer's day in December
                                     1961 (what happened to the sun?) at Newcastle, NSW.   Cheat lines were in light and dark blue.
                                     This Rapide was an import from Sweden some months earlier where it had been registered SE-CBU.
                                     It was the former RAF Dominie X7370 and originally civilianized in 1947 as G-AJXB when it flew
                                     with BEA.  It was re-registered VH-ECW in July 1962.   In the mid-1960s it was acquired by Nevil
                                     Bell and based in Darwin, NT.  As -ECW it was unfortunately written off in a fire at Archerfield
                                     Airport, Brisbane in March 1968.