In the early 1960s, DCA concerns over the continuing airworthiness of the glues used in the construction of certain wartime and early post-war aircraft led to the wholesale grounding and near extinction of several types. Click here to read more about this.

One of the types affected was the Percival Proctor, a high performance (for its day), all-wood, four-seater. Percival P.28B Proctor I VH-AUC (cn K253) was one such which failed its wood glue adhesion test at Adelaide/Parafield. VH-AUC was built at Luton, Beds, UK in 1940 for the RAF who allocated it the serial P6194 and used it in a light transport and communications role during the Second World War. In 1946 it was civilianized in the UK as G-AHDI and had been exported to Australia in 1951.

Thanks to the efforts of local enthusiasts, VH-AUC was salvaged and is today preserved and displayed at the Moorabbin Air Museum, Melbourne, as the shot above shows. It has been painted to represent the RAAF's only Proctor, A75-1, which was used in the Governor General's Flight in 1945.

Click here to see photos of VH-AUC being salvaged

(Photo: Grahame Higgs)

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