Mystery solved!

Thanks to the recent publication of Keith Meggs' magnum opus, Volume 1 of Australian-Built Aircraft and the Industry, we can identify our mystery aircraft as the Gash Birdplane.

The aircraft was built by David Gash and helpers in about 1929-30 from the remains of a Curtiss JN-4 and incoporated his own ideas about flying gained from a study of ornithology. According to Meggs, the wings' "rear section consisted of flexible feathers which were made of spruce, wire and silk, and five large feathers at each tip were pivoted through steel races which allowed them to extend..."

Powered by a Henderson motorcycle engine, the aircraft was taken to Nagambie, Vic, for flight trials where it apparently made several hops after re-engining with a Gipsy. On one hop 'piloted' by Gash, the aircraft stopped under the branches of the only two trees in the paddock. Meggs records, "On climbing out of the aircraft he burnt his hand severely on the long exhaust pipe beside the cockpit, then fell, banged his head very hard on the structure, and landed painfully astride a bracing wire..."! After being damaged following one of its hops, the aircraft was left at Nagambie where it was vandalised beyond repair.

No contact was made with the CAB during the aircraft's construction, but during its trials word reached the CCA, Lt Col Brinsmead who issued Gash with a warning about the consequences of operating an unapproved and unorthodox aircraft.

The photos of this rather bizarre aeroplane come from the Captain E.C. Johnston collection in the CAHS archives.