Buy a Avro Anson for 5 Pounds 10 shillings

Some bargains for sale in Sth. Aust. just after WW2 . Over 1300 Ansons and Oxfords were delivered to the RAAF , very few have survived today. GEOFF GOODALL'S AVIATION HISTORY SITE

My understanding is that the Anson wing used a laminated timber spar which eventually deteriorated. After a number of civilian planes were involved in fatal crashes caused by a spar failure, the aircraft were grounded as unairworthy because there was no non destructive testing method to test spar integrity. One Anson was still flying in Victoria into the 80's, operated by the Brain family. This aircraft had a metal spar assembly or metal wing upgrade at some stage post war and regularly appeared in Victorian airshows billed as Australia's last surviving airworthy Anson.

I believe it was the glue that deteriorated in hot climates , the wooden main spar would also rot when the Ansons were used in tropical areas like PNG . Reading through that web site, despite the wing spar issues, there were relatively few accidents involving civil Ansons compared to some other types of aircraft i.e. the DH 86 . I witnessed the Brain Anson flying at Moorabbin airport in 1970 . A friend of mine, his father flew in the Brain Anson to King Island regularly in the 1960's, he described the flights like this " say your prayers and hope for the best "

Thanks for the article, a dam good read, pity they went as scrap metal.
Kryn

I had several trips between Sydney and Glen Innes in Ansons when East West Airlines were using them. The interiors were fairly Spartan compared to modern airliners. As far as I remember there were five passenger seats on one side of the cabin and four on the other side, where the entry door took up the space where a fifth seat would have been.

Frank.

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Originally Posted by franco

I had several trips between Sydney and Glen Innes in Ansons when East West Airlines were using them. The interiors were fairly Spartan compared to modern airliners. As far as I remember there were five passenger seats on one side of the cabin and four on the other side, where the entry door took up the space where a fifth seat would have been.



Frank.

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Interesting, did you feel safe flying in the old Anson. The later model Ansons ( post war production ) were in RAF ( UK ) service until they were retired in 1968 .

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Originally Posted by morrisman

Interesting, did you feel safe flying in the old Anson. The later model Ansons ( post war production ) were in RAF ( UK ) service until they were retired in 1968 .

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Never thought about it. I don't think the spar problems started to become evident until after East West stopped using them. I can't imagine that the Dept of Civil Aviation would have allowed them to continue in airline service if the spar problem was known. They were quicker than the train and easier than driving, so became the logical choice. I do remember going to a function when East West introduced their first DC3 into service, can't remember where or exactly when though.

One of my flying instructors in the fifties had come back to Australia from flying Ansons in New Guinea. His wife had a greengrocer’s shop in Port Moresby. He said whenever there was any spare space on runs from the highlands to Port Moresby he would load fresh vegetables among the paid-for freight – said they always had the freshest vegetables in town.



Frank.