Aeroplane Monthly 1987-07
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M.Jerram - For Business and Pleasure
The last Auster J4 built was G-APJM, seen here over Watford (near Leavesden ???) on August 1, 1960, piloted by John Duer. This pilot had a narrow escape when he ditched the aircraft near the Varne Lightship on May 27, 1961. The Auster sank to the seabed and the pilot was rescued.
The two-seat unnamed successor to the prewar Taylorcraft C, powered by a 75 h.p. Continental C-75-12 engine, which led directly to the Auster J/2 Arrow.
Auster J/4 G-AIJM, photographed circa 1959, is still active in the Eighties, having spent much of its time based in the North of England.
The Auster Arrow prototype, G-AICA. Only half a dozen Arrows were sold on the home market.
In May 1951 Auster J/4 G-AIPL was sold in Australia, where it was fitted with a special crosswind undercarriage and registered VH-AEA.
Auster J/4 G-AIPR photographed shortly after it was built. Today it is owned by Roy Mills and is based at Wycombe Air Park.
Auster J/2 Arrow G-AJAM has been soldiering on for 40 years and is one of two examples still extant in the land of their birth.
The one and only Auster J/3 Atom, G-AHSY, was an Arrow airframe fitted with a 65 h.p. Continental C-65-12 engine. It was first flown in September 1946, dismantled in 1950 and rebuilt as J/4 G-AJYX later the same year.
Auster J/4 G-AIZT takes off from Rearsby in the early Fifties. This aircraft crashed and burned at Gaddesby, Leicestershire in April 1951.
Production J/2 Arrow G-AIJU was sold in Australia in November 1949, where it became VH-BNQ. It was later converted to Auster J/4 standard and reregistered VH-KFF.