A Symphony Of Vintage Propellors In Sydney This Weekend

As the school holiday period winds down in Australia, there is one special treat left to amuse the family, especially if there are any av-geeks among them. The HARS Aviation Museum, located south of Sydney, is putting on a weekend of propellors and smoke featuring some of its most celebrated vintage aircraft.

Australia’s Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) is opening its hangar doors from Friday, July 14th to Sunday, July 16th. The HARS Museum is located next to Shellharbour Regional Airport (WOL) in New South Wales, around 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD), and is easily accessible by road or rail.

The Southern Cross is firing up at HARS

Pioneer aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith piloted his tri-motor Southern Cross from Oakland, California, to Brisbane, Australia in 1928. This was the first aerial crossing of the Pacific and included stops in Hawaii and Fiji, with a flight time of 83 hours and 38 minutes for the 11,585 kilometers (7,200 miles) trip. HARS has restored a replica of the Southern Cross and its three Jacobs motors will be fired up on Friday for an engine run and taxi.

Also on Friday, visitors will be treated to the startup and flight of one of HARS’ two Vietnam War Caribous and another by its recently restored Winjeel, a 1950s locally built trainer for the Royal Australian Air Force. Many military pilots got their start in the Winjeel, so if they want to relive their youth this weekend is a good time to head to HARS.

The show’s highlight is on Saturday at 13:00, when three of its legendary twin-engine Dakotas, including DC-3s and C-47s, are fired up simultaneously in a line-up outside Hangar 1. HARS describes the six engines roaring into life and belching smoke as a “Symphony of Sound rarely heard anywhere today and a source of nostalgia for so many early fliers.”

For aviation enthusiasts who like their aircraft to hover, there will (hopefully) be another Vietnam War veteran, the Huey 898 helicopter flying in on Saturday. Intriguingly, HARS also advised that not everything on display will be driven by propellers, with a privately-owned Czech-built Aero L-39 Albatross in the skies above Shellharbour and available for pre-booked joy flights.

So much more than flying displays

Visitors on all three days will be able to walk freely through the HARS hangars and admire the more than 50 historic aircraft on display. While the aircraft will be front and center, the HARS team of experts, many of whom are ex-engineers or pilots, will be on hand and happy to chat about all things aviation. Organized tours will also be available.

No mention of HARS is complete without talking about the classic Connie, now the world’s only flying Lockheed Super Constellation and the Qantas 747-400. The Boeing 747, known as the City of Canberra, served the airline for more than 25 years and carried more than four million passengers before being donated to the museum by Qantas in 2015.

In 1989 when registered as VH-OJA, it became the first commercial aircraft to fly nonstop from London to Sydney, a forerunner to the upcoming Qantas Project Sunrise flights with the Airbus A350-1000 aircraft. The Jumbo carried just 23 crew and passengers and covered the 18,000 kilometers (11,200 miles) in 20 hours and 9 minutes.

Have you been to the HARS Museum? Let us know in the comments.