To replace its fleet of aging Avro Anson wartime transports in the late 1950s, DCA ordered four brand new Aero Commander light twins. These photographs show the first pair VH-CAW (c/n 729-53) & CAU (c/n 726-51) being accepted by the DCA at the Aero Commander factory in Oklahoma City prior to the ferry flight to Australia in 1959.

L-R: Eric Sims (DCA Airways Surveyor), Ian Perry (DCA Senior Examiner of Airmen - Navigators), Ian R Richardson (Civil Air Attache, Washington), W Brinckehoff (Aero Design and Engineering Co., Oklahoma), Alec Spooner (DCA Airways Surveyor), Laurie Bond (DCA Senior Examiner of Airmen), Svend Solberg (Aero Design and Engineering Co.). Click here to see a photo of the crews on arrival in Australia.

VH-CAW & CAU were ferried via the North Atlantic route and passed through Prestwick, Scotland on 28 April 1959, finally arriving at Essendon on 17 May 1959.

The following year, they were joined by a pair of different model Aero Commander 680Es VH-CAX & VH-CAY.

Click here to read a 1959 flight test report on the DCA's Aero Commander 560E.

(Photo: Chase Ltd./CAHS collection)

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