Lot 453

Description

Australian Aviation, WWII, framed original photograph of a Beaufort bomber A9-700 flying over Sydney Harbour, "A Memento of a Great Production Achievement - The last of the 700 Australian Beauforts delivered to the RAAF 14 days ahead of schedule, August 31 1944", personally signed by dozens of the production staff, (51cm x 47cm). Very fine and a rare original memento.

In the late 1930s Australia began an ambitious program to mass-produce bomber aircraft for the Royal Australian Air Force. Seven hundred bombers were constructed between 1941 and September 1944. The photograph shows DAP Beaufort Mk VII A9-700, the last all-new Beaufort to be built in Australia, which was delivered to the RAAF in September 1944, and Struck Off Charge in August 1949. The emblem visible on the aircraft's nose is Walt Disney's cartoon rabbit 'Thumper'.