Commer films

Have we seen this ?

Interesting aircraft being refueled by Commer tanker in Sweden.

German Junkers JU86 bomber. The Swedes bought 40 of these in 1938 and retired them in 1958. They re-engined them with British Bristol Pegasus units. The one on the video may a modified cargo/passenger version that was operated by SAS. Most modified versions, used by many countries (including a couple in Australia) had civilian rounded noses installed.

 

In 1937 Airlines of Australia operated a DIESEL powered JU86. Apparently they were underpowered and all later versions had petrol engines.

 

 


 

Here's  a pic of one in Darwin .

I remember having a ham radio contact with a guy who was living in Canberra , this was years ago. Anyway , he was saying , before the war, he was a pilot up in PNG and he was flying mining equipment around in Junkers aeroplanes. He had his grandson beside him, and I said hi to the kid.

Were there many , or any, successful types of diesel powered aeroplanes? 


 

Junkers were the mainstay of New Guinea aviation in the 30's - biggest cargo aircraft in the world


Interesting fact. New Guinea carried more weight of commercial airfreight during a couple of years in the 1930's than the whole rest of the world COMBINED. The great majority was the short flight from Lae to the gold fields of Wau and Bulolo. Floating dredges weighing thousands of tons were flown in bits to be reassembled. Nearly all in Junkers.

The feats these Junkers accomplished were staggering.  Between 1931 and 1938 , the freighters flew 20 times the cargo flown in Australia, and more than the rest of the world combined. From 1931 to 1942, they carried 80,000,000lbs – 36,000 tonnes – of freight, and flew 2,250,000 kilometres (1.4 million miles). Over 14,000 trips, 7,000 passengers were carried. In return, the fields yielded 36 tonnes of gold, and 16 tonnes of silver.

 

 

 



I like this photo. The Junkers are parked exactly where our hangar tarmac was when I was in the PGD Defence Force Air Transport Squadron 78-81. Of course the Japanese used this parking spot 1942-44.

 


Great shot of an American Boston on a low level attack on a Japanese Betty bomber about 400 metres further down the strip from the Junkers parking spot.

 

 

It is almost unbelievable that every nut and bolt, support services, fuel and people (plus building materials for their towns) was flown over the mountains in the 1930's by what are now only small aircraft. Not just one dredge but eight! Things like kilometres of wire rope for the dredges had to be cut into sizes to meet the weight limits of the aircraft then spliced together again in Bulolo. Lots of the heavy steel was riveted back together in the days before extensive heavy welding - tons of rivets and gas bottles.

 

 

 

Here is a nice documentary on the great air lift.







 

Lang, Thank You for the pictures and history of gold dredging. On our trip to Alaska in 2013, I did not know of the museums available, but coming south out of Dawson, Yukon I saw the piles of gravel where they had worked. Prior to WW 2 I have no idea how they got the equipment in?? But after the Alcan highway was built during the war, I presume the parts came in by truck?? For the dredging in the Nome AK area, Google shows the parts coming in by boat from Seattle WA.

Two of my fathers uncles were involved in gold dreding in NG , did such things as cutting bulldozers into 100 kg pieces ,and reassembling them ....Both were claimed to be fabulously rich ,and one I knew lived in a mansion on Eldernell St , Hamilton ,above the river ......none of the money ever filtered down to my side of the family .