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Old 09-21-2019, 03:30 PM
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Don Boose Don Boose is offline
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Cunliffe-Owen OA-1 (Burnelli UB-14)

I've been following Péricles' excellent build of Aaron Murphy's Brunelli UB-14 in its CBY-3 manifestation Burnelli UB-14 and CBY 3 - Murph's Models in 1/100

The speculations by Yukon John and Murph of alternative and what if schemes have been particularly interesting to me. What I would most like to see would be recolors by Pacific Wind or Rata of some of the liveries carried by the visually identical Cunliffe-Owen OA-1 that served with the Royal Australian Air Force, the Japanese Navy, and in civilian liveries in the Southwest Pacific.

Ten of these aircraft were ordered for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), but only one (c/n COA-10, RAAF Serial A18B-1) was delivered in 1941. In natural metal finish with black serials painted on the rear of the tail booms, it served with No. 24 Squadron RAAF and was captured intact at Vunakanau airfield, Rabaul, New Britain by Japanese forces on 25 January 1942.

After evaluation by the First Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal (Dai Ichi Kaigun Koku Gijutsu Koshō), it was assigned, along with three Mitsubishi G4M1-L transports, to the support element of the Tainan Naval Air group, which operated from Vunakanau, Lae, and Buna in the latter part of 1942, during which time the OA-1 was painted dark green with natural metal undersides, red Hinomaru Japanese national insignia in the usual six positions, “V-904” in white on the outer surfaces of the vertical stabilizers, and a white IFF combat stripe (senchi hyōshiki) encircling the rear of the tail booms. It is said that V-904 participated in the ill-fated airborne operation in which paratroopers of the First Yokosuka Special Naval Landing Force attempted to reinforce Buna in December 1942.

V-904 (A18B-1) was recaptured at Lae in September 1943 by elements of the Australian 9th Division. Hastily repainted in dark green and light gray with white tail surfaces, A18B-1 operated in support of Australian forces in New Guinea until the end of the war.

After the war, now in overall natural metal finish and with the civil registration VH-CZK, the aircraft operated among the coffee plantations and mines of the Western Highlands of New Guinea. As far as I know, it is still flying with the Papua New Guinea registration P2-CZK. I once had a faded photograph of the aircraft that had been taken at Mount Hagen Airport some years ago, but I can’t find it just now. If anyone who has greater knowledge of this aircraft than I, please fill in the gaps in its history.

Needless to say, 冗談だよ.

Don

Sources:


“Cunliffe-Owen,” Aviation in Hampshire Since 1900, available at https://web.archive.org/web/20080119220334/http://daveg4otu.tripod.com/ah1900/prod1.html

Douglas Gillison, Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Series 3, Air: Royal Australian Air Force, 1939-1942, Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1962.

Geoff Goodall, Australian Aviation History, available at http://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation.htm

Kumalo Kerpi, Dispela balus bilong Papua Niugini, Port Moresby: University of Papua New Guinea Press, forthcoming 2020.

George Odgers, Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Series 3, Air: Air War Against Japan, 1943-1945, Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1957.

Philippe Ricco, Les Avions de Burnelli et Cunliffe-Owen, available at https://web.archive.org/web/20091110134355/http://www.avions.cocardes.org/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=124

Luca Ruffato and Michael J. Claringbould, Eagles of the Southern Sky: The Tainan Air Group in WWII, Voume One: New Guinea, Kent Town, Australia: Avinmore Books, 2012.

Jiro Takahashi, Taiheiyōsensō ni okeru nipponkaigun kōkū yusō-ki to butai (Japanese Naval Aviation Transport Aircraft and Units of the Pacific War), Tōkyō: Kōkū shuppan kaisha, 2018.

Lionel Wigmore, Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Series 1, Army: The Japanese Thrust, Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1957.

Last edited by Don Boose; 09-21-2019 at 03:54 PM.
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