VH-UDN Sopwith
Dove
(c/n W/O 3004/3)
This
Sopwith Dove was first registered in June 1921 as G-AUDN to a
E.O. Cudmore of South
Yarra, Vic. The Frank
Walters shot above (via Geoff Goodall) was taken circa 1930 by which
time
it had become VH-UDN. In the shot below from the John
Hopton collection it appears to
have a slightly different,
or at least lighter, color scheme and with the VH- repeated on the
rudder
(quite common in those days). The only picture I had of
this Dove for years was the grainy image
seen at the foot of the page which was gleaned from a newspaper showing
the machine at Mascot
with
Adastra's hangar in the background. It had several owners in
Victoria and NSW (and
several
lapses of
CofA in between) in
the 1930s and
was written off when it forced landed some 4 miles
NE
of Goulburn, NSW on 27
February 1934.