Big Move For A Canadian Anson
On Thursday, we published a story covering the Greenwood Military Aviation Museum in Greenwood, Nova Scotia. One of their most recent, long term restoration projects involved the near total rebuild of Avro Anson Mk.II, RCAF serial 7135. Over a period of nine years, the team of dedicated volunteers at Greenwood restored this tattered wreck to a pristine, world-class example of one of WWII’s most important, British-designed aircraft. Other than fighter pilots, it is doubtful that many Commonwealth airmen graduated to the front line without first flying the ‘Faithful Annie’. They were used in every theatre, in many different guises from trainer, to transport, to coastal patrol craft and even as a light bomber. More than 11,000 rolled off the production lines, and some were still in RAF service as late as 1968.
While we will cover 7135’s actual restoration in another article, we can say it took nearly six years, and well over 16,000 hours of labor to get the aircraft ready for display. At the time though, the museum didn’t have a workshop at the museum big enough to handle the job, but they did have access to hangar space at nearby Canadian Forces Base Greenwood. They completed the project inside Hangar 10. However, they then had to figure out how to move this large aircraft, which disassemble in any appreciable way, the two miles or so from Hangar 10 down a veritable obstacle course of road signs, lamp posts, telephone wires and tight turns to the museum for display. The moving crew came up with an ingenious, if precarious plan to mount the aircraft on a massive, motorized hydraulic scissor lift, and slowly guide its precious cargo over, around or under the objects in its path, sometimes with clearances of just a few inches. While the move took place in 2012, we thought our readers would find this journey fascinating, and a potentially instructive demonstration of creative problem solving. We will let the images (all taken by Malcolm Ullman) and their captions tell the story.
Many thanks indeed to Mr. Uhlman for making these images available. For those interested in the museum, please do see our article from last week HERE. The museum website HERE and their Facebook page HERE are also well worth checking out.
I was going through my Dad’s log book and found out that this actual aircraft (Anson 7135) was one that he flew in Vulcan, Alberta in 1944.
Wow! That is a remarkable thing to find, John. I am sure the museum would love to see an image of your father’s logbook documenting this flight! Thanks so much for writing in. If you would like to share more about your father’s wartime career, we’d love to hear about it!
All the best,
Richard