VH-SJG Bristol 170 Freighter Mk. 21
(c/n 12799)
In 1970
Air Express acquired three Bristol
Freighters and promptly sold them to Jetair Australia
for their short-lived
freight operation. VH-SJG was one of them and it, like VH-SJQ,
was re-
possessed by Air Express of Melbourne when the Jetair service
folded. Greg Banfield's shot
of
-SJG in Air Express markings (above) was taken at Essendon in December
1974. The air-
to-air
photo below is from the CAHS archives. The Bristol
had been declared surplus from
RAAF requirements in 1967 and flown to Archerfield,
Brisbane. It had
served faithfully from
its original transfer to the RAAF in 1949 as
A81-1.
Built in 1948 as G-AIMI, it went first to
the UK
Ministry of Supply as WB482 before going out to
Australia. Ian McDonell's shot # 3,
taken at
Essendon in 1971, shows the aircraft sans any livery when just
re-acquired by
Air
Express for
its trans Bass Strait freight operation to Launceston, Tasmania.
This service lasted
until
1978 during which time the aircraft had appeared in a number of
different
liveries. When
disposed
of by Air Express, it was purchased by Malcolm Long and displayed for a
while at
Chewing Gum
Field, Coolangatta, Qld in RAAF livery as A81-1. After
languishing there for
several
years and deteriorating somewhat, it was gifted to the RAAF Museum at
Point Cook
where it
is now part of the permanent exhibition. Peter
Hough's shot of it at that locale taken in
January 2007 is at the foot of the page.
