Unique African aviation museum celebrates 40 years
Date: 7 October 2013
By Janet Szabo
Africa’s only working military aviation museum, at Swartkops Air Force Base near Pretoria, celebrated its 40th anniversary at the monthly flying/training day at the weekend.
The Officer Commanding the South African Air Force Museum (SAAFM), Colonel Mike O’Connor said the museum was one of only three in the world which offered aviation enthusiasts the chance to see historical aircraft and war birds in regular action. The only other similar museums are in the US and Britain.
South Africa boasts a long and vibrant aviation history. The SAAF is the second-oldest air force in the world, after Britain’s Royal Air Force. Its history covers two world wars, and involvement in major global events of the last century such as the Berlin Airlift, the Korean War, the Border Wars and more recently, peacekeeping and anti-piracy operations in Africa.
However, it was only in 1973 under Colonel Peter McGregor – the museum’s first Officer Commanding - that the history of the aircraft and the people involved began to be preserved and documented. Significantly, the museum is housed in hangers that formed part of the Imperial Gift in 1919, which established the country’s air force. Despite many challenges, especially financial ones, the museum continues to add new exhibits and aircraft as it strives to reflect the post 1994 SAAF which includes members of the non-statutory forces such as the Azanian People Liberation Army (APLA), Umkhonto we Sizwe and the air wings of the former homelands of Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Ciskei and Venda (TBVC).
Colonel O’Connor outlined the next steps for the museum:
“We’ve never really had the displays in a chronological order from the birth of the air force, right up to the present. In the next month or two we’re going to start moving exhibits around. The other important thing is we are developing the fourth hanger into the former MK, APLA, TBVC hanger. We’re all one force so we’ve got to get all that information for the public. We’ve got a lot of exhibits, especially in the former TBVC hanger. We’re getting a lot of equipment from the Special Forces. We’re going through a process of putting all the aircraft on little stands. Obviously funding is a major requirement at a museum like this, especially being a flying museum. On the flying side we are basically keeping the museum up in the air by hosting events.”
Besides preserving history, the museum also plays no small role in promoting the future of the air force through its aviation awareness programmes with school children.
Colonel O’Connor touched on some of the displays that proved popular with learners. “The school children like being outside. We’ve got a Cheetah simulator which they love sitting in. We’re looking at getting two of the old PC7 (Pilatus trainer aircraft) simulators from Langebaanweg early next year. They’re really going to enjoy those type of exhibits. Its inter-active and that’s what they like. We get up to five schools a week that are visiting us now. As part of our social responsibility programme we took a 6 year old boy who has leukemia. His dream was to fly in a military helicopter.”
The museum boasts 135 aircraft on show covering all the functions performed by the SAAF including cargo, maritime patrol, trooping by both fixed-wing and rotor craft, medical evacuation and combat aircraft. Currently it has 18 aircraft representing 14 types in flying condition, lovingly maintained by only 6 qualified mechanics. The types in clued the Vampire fighter, the Puma and Alouette helicopters, the vintage Dakota and the world’s only operating Patchen Explorer.
But the museum’s repertoire could be set to expand. “We’ve restored a Tiger Moth fixed-wing and this aircraft cost us roughly 500 000 rand to restore. The Spitfire is still going to be in the containers for quite a long time. Last guestimate we got was about two-million rand, but that was about two years ago, with the current exchange rate we are probably looking at twenty-million plus. We’re looking at doing something towards our P51 Mustang, we’ve got some American support, that is a feasible project”.
Speaking with pride about the exhibits, Colonel O’Connor singled out the Shackleton long-range maritime patrol aircraft which served the SAAF for more than 20 years until 1984. This held particularly strong, personal memories for him. “This was an aircraft that was associated with my family. My Dad started with 35 Squadron as a leading air mechanic and he had a passion for the Shackleton and every time, when he was on pension, when the Shackleton went past his house in Blouberg Strand, he would be out there listening to those Rolls Royce engines. They would run out and try and take photos with cameras that could hardly see the aircraft.”
Source: SABC online
