ZK-ALE Miles
M.11A Whitney Straight
(c/n 503)
Another poor,
washed-out print. Another, (earlier) view of it can be seen on the page
for the
Ercoupe ZK-AQX. Anyway, this Whitney
Straight was originally
imported as ZK-AGB
in
1937 for the
Wairarapa and Ruahine Aero Club. . It was one of
three impressed into the
RNZAF
during WW II, this one becoming NZ577. Following its
war-time service it was sold
to
J. Gould as ZK-ALE in 1946 (although I have an old ZK- register
indicating it was operated
by
theAuckland Aero Club). ZK-ALE crashed during a supply dropping
operation in Mamaku Hills
on 7
September 1953, killing the pilot, L. Brooker.