VH-AGQ (2)    Ryan STM                                          (c/n  473)

                        

                            A less than quality photograph (taken with an old Kodak bellows 120), but rare in that it shows
                            a Ryan in service with an aero club - The Royal Queensland Aero Club in this case.  This shot
                            was taken at Archerfield in 1948.  VH-AGQ was one of the ex-Netherlands East Indies Navy
                            machines, having been delivered to that air arm as S-37.  With the impending invasion of the
                            Netherlands East Indies by the Japanese in 1941, this aircraft, and 32 other Ryan STMs were
                            transported to Australia to ostensibly set up a relocated NEI flying school.  In the event they
                            were all transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force.   VH-AGQ was the first to be given a
                            RAAF serial, becoming A50-1.    Declared surplus after the war, it came onto the Australian
                            civil register late in 1945.  It was destroyed in a crash at Mullumbimby, NSW in 1949.
                            For a list of the military Ryan STM serial numbers and their disposition, visit:  
                                                                    http://www.adf-serials.com/2a50.shtml