There was great anticipation at Shellharbour Airport on Friday when Historical Aviation Restoration Society (HARS) volunteers attempted to fire up all three reconditioned engines on the replica of Australia's most famous aircraft.
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Running the engines together at full power is the last major milestone for a team led by Jim Thurstan who will soon lock in a date in early 2022 for the first flight of the fully restored Southern Cross II.
Among those interested in that moment is Dick Smith who has funded much of the restoration to recreate such an important piece of Australian aviation history.
The original Southern Cross was made famous by the aviation pioneering exploits of Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm which included a record breaking 14-hour flight to New Zealand in 1933 that took off from Seven Mile Beach near Gerroa.
Their sons, who are both in their 90s, have been following every step of the restoration and Dick Smith is planning to bring them to the Illawarra for the occasion.
"We will fly it around here first, then take it to Seven Mile Beach for a flyover," Mr Thurstan said.
"That will be a really nice thing to do because people in that area have been following us all the way through this journey for years.
"After that the first serious flight will be to Dick Smith's farm near Goulburn."
In the meantime the Illawarra community is in for a special treat much sooner when all three engines are fired up at Wings Over Illawarra on November 27 and 28.
The last of the three fully restored engines was fitted just prior to the latest COVID lockdown which forced HARS to close its aviation museum. The team of volunteers had only a few days worth of electrical work left to get to that stage of testing when they had to stop work. During yesterday's test they discovered there was a starter motor issue on one engine and an electric fuel boost pump problem on another.
"We have come up with a few electrical issues. They haven't been fully powered up since 2002," Mr Thurstan said.
Read more:
- Wings Over Illawarra air show returns November 2021
- No longer a 'tin shed': Inside the new $7.9m Shellharbour Airport passenger terminal
- All the photos of the farewell salute from the last Qantas 747-400 to the first at HARS
- Final Qantas Boeing 747 leaves a flying kangaroo formation in the sky as it leaves Australia
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Greg Ellis
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
