VH-UTG British Klemm BK.1 Eagle
II
(c/n 113)
I have gleaned a
plethora of shots of this Eagle. Above and No. 3 are via the Civil
Aviation
Historical
Society. In the lower photo the aircraft is seen wearing its Race
Number when it
took part in the Centenary Air Race between Brisbane and Adelaide in
December of 1936.
Frank Walters' shot immediately below shows it at Bankstown just
prior to having its race
number 35
applied to the white disk. VH-UTG
was originally imported in April 1935 for
dealer Adastra Airways of Mascot.
It spent time in South Australia, however, and
was the
subject of a couple of belly
landings. One of
these occurred at Oodnadatta, SA on 13 July
1935 and was
captured on
film by the
father of Robert Milburn, who supplies image
# 4 below.
The Eagle had a similar mishap at Beltana, SA on 7
October 1935. Perhaps the pilot wasn't
used to a
retractable undercarriage? Anyway, it
was sold
to R.T. Vincent of Geelong in
May of 1936, although flown in the race by aviation pioneer C.D.
Pratt. .
In 1940 it went to
Aircrafts
Pty Ltd in Brisbane and then to Queensland Flying Service in
1946. In 1947 it was
sold to
A.C. Cameron
and D. Scott of
Tenterfield, NSW, and
by April of 1950 was owned
by East-West Airlines (as a
trainer or company hack?) In
their service, it crashed during a
forced landing 10
miles south of Moree, NSW on 28 July 1950. The fifth
photo is a
rough
print from the Roger
McDonald collection and was taken at Lismore, NSW, as late as
1948.
Finally, the clipping at the foot of the page is from the Brisbane
Courier Mail for 17
Dec 1936,
and shows -UTG
in a line-up of aeroplanes awaiting starter's orders in the above
mentioned
air race, in
which a total of 31 aircraft took part.