VH-MMS   Fokker F.27 Friendship                     (c/n  10139)

                                    

                                         Originally ordered new by TAA in 1959, this Friendship was to have been VH-TFL but the
                                         its production line delivery position was sold to MacRobertson Miller.  It arrived in Perth in
                                         December 1959 as VH-TFL but this was soon changed to be VH-MMS.  Geoff Goodall's
                                         shot above shows at Perth in November 1969 in the original MMA Jetstream color scheme.
                                         This was MMA's first Friendship and it became the highest time F.27 in the world due to the
                                         long stage lengths of outback WA, flying an average of over 10 hours a day, 7 days a week
                                         and logging between 3,000 to 4,000 hours each year.    When RMA "Swan" was transferred
                                         to Ansett routes in the Eastern States in 1972, it had flown 41,048 hours in MMA service.
                                         Geoff's photo (below) depicts- MMS at Geraldton WA, in  May 1971 in the new Ansett style
                                         scheme  At the end of 1984 it was repainted into the new Ansett 'Southern Cross livery as seen
                                         at the foot of the page in the photo by Danny Tanner, taken at Ballarat, Victoria in February,
                                         1985.   After flying with other Ansett subsidiaries it was withdrawn from service in 1987 and
                                         in 1991 was sold in Peru as OB-1454.    In 1994 it was ferried to Santiago, Chile for storage
                                         and was not broken up until early in the new millennium.