ZK-AEA British
Klemm BK1 Eagle
(c/n 106)
This was the former VH-USP, flown across the Tasman
Sea into New
Zealand in October 1935
by
its owner, Mr. W.M. O'Hara, whose address was given as Malang, Java,
NEI. . The aircraft
was named 'Zeelandia'.
O'Hara then toured New Zealand in it, notwithstanding the fact that the
Australian CAB had cancelled its CofA due to the extra long range tanks
which had been fit ted
and which did not meet their requirements. In April 1936 O'Hara
had the machine registered in
New
Zealand as ZK-AEA and then, shortly after shipped it back to Sydney
aboard the 'MV
Monowa'
where it arrived on 5 May 1936. His intention was to fly the
Eagle back to Java, via
Perth.
The above shot, from the E.A. Crome collection,
courtesy of the National Library of
Australia was
taken outside
the Sydney to Newcastle Air Service hangar at Mascot in May 1936
just
before this attempted flight to the NEI. Unfortunately it crashed on
take off from a property
near Dubbo, NSW on 24 May 1936, and O'Hara was killed in the crash