VH-UVE Klemm
L-32V
(c/n 402)
Built as D-2299, this
is the Klemm in which aviatrix Maude
Rose "Lores" Bonney made the first
solo flight from
Australia to South
Africa. The above photograph, taken at Archerfield
is from
the Frank Walters collection probably just prior to the
long flight. Another image at around the
same time as Frank's
is seen below and is via the John Oxley Library, State Library of
Queens-
land
collection. At the foot of the page is an historic shot of the
diminutive craft from the Stephen
Mills collection
taken in Kenya circa 1932 before the
aircraft went to the U.K. to become
G-ACYU.
In December 1935 Lores purchased
the Klemm from Norman Berry Littlejohn of Melbourne who
had flown it
out from the
U.K. She christened it 'My Little Ship II', and departed
Darwin for South
Africa on 13
April 1937,
arriving in Cape Town some four months later. The trip had
a double inter-
est for Lores.
She had been born in the Union and hence it was a trip back "home" plus
the solo
flight had
never been done before. The Klemm was shipped back to
Australia but unfortunately
was destroyed in the
disastrous fire in the
Qantas No 2 hangar at Archerfield on 28 June
1939.