Aeroplane Monthly 1977-12
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G.Todd - Wings over the Irrawady
A motley assortment of river craft often caused pilots much anxiety. Note the addition of the ventral fin to VT-AHI.
Karaweik begins the long haul up the slipway to the not unmusical chant of four good men and true toiling away at the hangar winch.
A hundred hands made light work of transporting Scion components to the assembly point in I.F.&A’s hangar at Pazundaung, Rangoon, on October 8, 1936.
Capt E. Esmonde poses for the camera at the conclusion of his test flight to check unuseable fuel carried by Karaweik.
The sole Scion Senior landplane, G-AECU, on charter to the Iraq Petroleum Transport company in early 1939, taxies out prior to take-off from Sharjah, Trucial Oman.
Fitting the wings to Scion Senior VT-AIJ in February 1937.
Scion Senior VT-AGU on the Medway shortly before delivery to l.F.&A in Burma. Note the absence of the ventral fin, which was added at a later date.
The same aircraft disembarks passengers at the Pazundaung slipway. Not one of the six Scion Seniors built ever hurt a soul, although they had very varied and sometimes dramatic lives.
VT-AHI on the crowded apron of Short's boatyard by the Medway, shortly before disassembly for packing and export in September 1936.
VT-AHI takes off for its first flight in Burma on October 21, 1936, in the hands of Capt Esmonde. The name Karaweik was Burmese for “a ship of state.”
Eyed askance by a passing boatman, VT-AHI disembarks passengers at the Pazundaung slipway. Only minutes before, this sampanwallah had fled for his life as the great machine, after thundering about his ears, hurtled down to alight in the midst of the other, equally irate, men of the river.
VT-AHI on the slipway at Pazundaung. Much of the Rhodoia and Cellon transparent plastic glazing had to be replaced annually because of shrinkage.