A very special Auster has come home to roost

[Radpoe Spitfire]

Hi folks, in the last week or so, members of the museum collected the latest acquisition and it is very special to South Yorkshire.

 

Auster Mk1 LB314 has been acquired from Denmark. This Auster is special to SYAM, in that in 1942 it operated from RAF Firbeck with 654 sqn on the former South Yorkshire airfield. Eventually the sqn found its way to North Africa, serving as aerial artilliary spotters in the NA campaign. The museum was formed when the old S.Yorks.Aviation.Society voted to turn its memoribilia collection into a full museum, sited in former buildings of the site from the early1980's until it moved to Doncaster in 1999-2000.

On retuning to the UK, the first port of call was an informal photoshoot, taken next to a memorial at Firbeck, which stands on the base of the airfield's only Hangar.

 

Congratulations to all involved- it has taken over 30 years, but this is the museum's first significant WW2 "Warbird"

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It looks in good condition.

Will it need much restoration?

[Radpoe Spitfire]

Yes it is in very good condition, other than a bit of dust through hangar storage, with a spit and Polish- this is how it would look now. 

 

There are photos of its recovery, and pit-stop at Firbeck, on the museum's Facebook page. The Demobbed website now has a photo of it in the museum hangar, albeit waiting to be put back together.