‘Dignified end’ for Bristol Freighter
One of the last Bristol 170 Freighters, with a special place in New Zealand aviation history, is returning to where it was built.
The plane, which sits at Ardmore Airport, has been sold to United Kingdom industrial heritage museum Aerospace Bristol.
It is one of only 11 complete examples that remain in the world and will be put on public display there.
The freighter is no longer airworthy and is being stripped down to its fuselage. It will be shipped on a
journey that will take about 80 days from Auckland to Portsmouth, England. From there, it will be trucked to Bristol.
The wings, engines and propellers have been removed for storage to meet UK road load-size limitations.
Dwen Airmotive managing director Mark Dwen, the plane’s former owner, says it’s been a ‘‘huge logistical challenge’’.
His father, Ron, bought the freighter, along with seven others, from the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) in 1978 after the planes were put out of commission. They were flown from the air force base at Whenuapai to Ardmore Airport where Ron’s business was based, supplying aviation spare parts and engines around the world.
Over the years, some of the freighters went to Canada and were used in the Arctic Circle for gold mining and oil exploration operations. Some went to the UK for transporting thoroughbreds around Europe. Other freighters were used to transport bloodstock around New Zealand.
The last remaining freighter needed a new home as Dwen Airmotive’s lease at Ardmore was up.
‘‘The freighter was one of the last items to be sold. This is not everyone’s idea of a nice plane.
‘‘It is a functional freight aircraft which, frankly, does not have much sex appeal, unlike say a Spitfire or even the DC3.
‘‘We had several offers to take it away and a few offers to buy it, but none of these met our requirements of finding a dignified end to this piece of New Zealand aviation history.’’
Going on display in a heritage museum was an appropriate choice, Dwen said.
Aerospace Bristol volunteer Bill Morgan says the freighter will be restored in the museum’s Filton Airport workshop where the plane was originally designed and built in the 1950s. A total of 214 Bristol Freighters were made between 1945 to 1958.
Getting the plane ‘‘back home’’ was ’’not an easy task’’ but it was all worth it, Morgan said.
The planes played a key role in the RNZAF in the 1940s and 1950s, conducting transport flights in the South Pacific during World War II. They were also used by New Zealand cargo line Straits Air Freight Express that ran the New Zealand Railways air service from Wellington to Blenheim before the introduction of the Cook Strait ferries.