Burma Volunteer Air Force

[leyreynolds]

Can anyone point me to books/articles/photo's/drawings about this force during WW2 please?

[leyreynolds]

I've been told that there was an Air Britain pamphlet on this topic - can anyone help lease?

[Graham Boak]

There may be (quite likely) something in Shores' Bloody Shambles. Other than that there will be something about Burmese Moths in Stuart Mackay's books on the DH60 Moth and DH82 Tiger Moth. There are four paragraphs in the new Warpaint on the Tiger Moth.

[Super Aereo]

There should be something in "Eyes For The Phoenix" by G J Thomas too.

[Dave Fleming]

On 31/03/2015 at 11:12, leyreynolds said:

Can anyone point me to books/articles/photo's/drawings about this force during WW2 please?

But late on this but Aeromilitaria 1991/1 has an article 

On 05/04/2015 at 20:51, leyreynolds said:

I've been told that there was an Air Britain pamphlet on this topic - can anyone help lease?

 

[Ed Russell]

Check your email @leyreynolds !

[TISO]

Any photos of Curtiss Wright CW-22 when used by BVAF 1941-42?

All i found was a photo of all silver plane later in use with USAAF as a hack in India.

[Dave Fleming]

19 hours ago, TISO said:

Any photos of Curtiss Wright CW-22 when used by BVAF 1941-42?

All i found was a photo of all silver plane later in use with USAAF as a hack in India.

Only one I know of is in the Aeromilitaria article mentioned above, showing the natural metal one in RAF markings abandoned (No wings!) in Bombay/Mumbai in 1948. Likely it was camouflaged, as most other BVAF aircraft were (Tiger Moths, Aeronca Chief, Yales etc)

[Graham Boak]

It's them Yales again!  To avoid misdirection amongst modellers, this is an example of the vague British use of the term for any "Harvard type" with a fixed undercarriage.  The only true Yales were NA-64s, and then only in RCAF service.  These BVAF aircraft were ex-Chinese trainers of some earlier BT-9 variant - from memory Don Hagedorn's list of all NA-16 derivatives shows two possibilities.  NA-64s had the later longer metal rear fuselage and triangular rudder, with the earlier "swept-back" wing and unique tips.  These aircraft will have looked much more like underpowered Harvard Mk.Is.

 

Wonderful aircraft series for modelling opportunities!  But full of detail differences to trip you up.

[Dave Fleming]

5 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

It's them Yales again!  To avoid misdirection amongst modellers, this is an example of the vague British use of the term for any "Harvard type" with a fixed undercarriage.  The only true Yales were NA-64s, and then only in RCAF service.  These BVAF aircraft were ex-Chinese trainers of some earlier BT-9 variant - from memory Don Hagedorn's list of all NA-16 derivatives shows two possibilities.  NA-64s had the later longer metal rear fuselage and triangular rudder, with the earlier "swept-back" wing and unique tips.  These aircraft will have looked much more like underpowered Harvard Mk.Is.

 

Wonderful aircraft series for modelling opportunities!  But full of detail differences to trip you up.

 

And lacking in kits unless you want to build a T-6G! 🙂

 

I'm not sure if the reference to them as 'Yales' is contemporary or a modern usage. From our previous correspondence you said 

 

 The photo of the wreck of Z-31 is perhaps rather better reproduced than in Shores.  Dan identifies the aircraft as NA56s, which apparently are described as "BC-1As with fixed undercarriages" but he points out that they aren't quite.  They have the larger engine, but not quite with the normal T-6 installation, closer to the SNJ-1.  There's the long metal rear fuselage with triangular tail, but the earlier long canopy.

 

[Graham Boak]

Thanks for that.  However the situation isn't quite that desperate, with Azur producing NA.57s/BT-9s and RS producing the Yale.  There is of course much you can do with a Wirraway...