This eFLYER was developed in HTML for viewing with Microsoft Internet Explorer while connected to the Internet: View Online.
To ensure delivery to your inbox, please add eFLYER@barnstormers.com to your address book or list of approved senders.
Barnstormers Logo

ISSUE 80 - August 2009
Over 8,000 Total Ads Listed
1,000+ NEW Ads Per Week

  Home     Browse All Classifieds     eFLYERs     Events     Testimonials     Post Ad     Search Ads  
BARNSTORMERS eFLYER... a collective effort of the aviation community.
YOUR photos, videos, comments, reports, stories, and more...
Click to Subscribe
SEND BARNSTORMERS eFLYER TO A FRIEND
That They May Rise Again: Part 1

By Kevin Moore, Contributing Editor & Photographer
Roslin, Ontario, Canada

One of the first things you’ll see as you enter the scrap yard area are these Bolingbrook nose sections, fuselage section and a wing. There are also other nose sections, wings, fuselage sections, and a wing and fuselage complete section.

I suppose some might say that every airplane will meet its end some day. True, many old airplanes wind up as pop cans, frying pans, and possibly hubcaps. However, there are some folks who have made efforts to save airplanes from the scrap dealer’s crusher so that other airplanes may continue to fly.

The top-turret section
for a Bolingbrook bomber

One individual who has saved many an airplane and assisted others in continuing to fly is Vince O’Connor of Uxbridge, Ontario. Vince is the owner/operator of O’Con-Aircraft Supplies, The Movie Hangar Inc. and has been dealing in scrap airplanes and airplane parts for 40 plus years. Vince has seen a variety of airplanes pass through his yard since he first established his business. Though his ‘collection’ of airplanes and parts has declined in recent times, he still has quite an assortment of items that are invaluable to the aviation community. However, there is concern that much of it could be hauled off to the scrap yard in the not-too-distant future. That would be most unfortunate.

Vince’s museum looks like a bomb hit it and needs organizing so that his memorabilia is properly displayed. However, many of the items he has in the collection are ‘one-of-a-kind’ and are likely very rare, left. There are several T-33 cockpit and fuselage sections around the property, right.

Vince doesn’t just deal in airplane parts for airplane owners, he does consulting and supplies props for the film industry as well. His 10 acres of land includes his home (which he is still in the process of finishing), a large hangar, an assortment of out-buildings, a short grass airstrip, and airplanes in various states of disrepair scattered about the place. There are T-33 fuselages, a now partly rotted crate of T-33, brand new flaps, Voodoo fuselage section and parts, CF-100 Canuck parts, the fuselage/frames of a Cessna Crane, Fleet Cornell, and an Anson Mk 1. There are Harvard wings, part fuselages, and assortment of many other parts. Cockpit windscreens, canopy covers, hundreds, if not thousands of instruments, a Lancaster top turret frame, a Goblin engine and the nose section from a DH Vampire, propeller blades, tip-tanks, airplane fuselages, seats, fuel pumps…… and so much more. Ever thought about restoring and flying a Bolingbrook? If you have, or you’d like to, there are several nose sections, at least two fuselages, and wings for a complete rebuild project. The list goes on.

Hanging from the rafters inside the hangar are two rare finds. On the left a Cessna Crane fuselage frame and on the right is that of a Fleet Cornell, left. Also hanging from the rafters is a rare Avro Anson Mk I fuselage frame, right.

At 71 and dealing with some health concerns, Vince doesn’t want to see his life’s work & collection melted down, especially when so much of it could go to airplanes that need restoring, or are in the process of being restored. He has amassed a collection of personal aviation items that most museums would give their first born for. In his ‘museum’ he has a complete control column for a DH Mosquito fighter (stick) and the yoke for a Mosquito bomber. There is also the bombardier’s ‘control stick’ from a B-17 bomber, rare built and boxed model airplanes, hand carved models, a large assortment of vintage RCAF and aviation photos, vintage aviation ads, and so much more. He is very proud of the collection he has amassed and hopes he still has time to display it all properly.

Vince’s pride and joy, a long time restoration project, still in the works, is his Lysander. The completed fuselage sits among thousands of parts from many different airplanes, including the wings and tail-feathers for the Lysander.

Apart from all this, Vince’s pride and joy is the fuselage of an airplane he’s been quietly restoring for years, crammed inside his hangar, surrounded by tens of thousands of assorted airplane parts from, probably, every airplane the RCAF has ever flown. Sitting shiny, clean and restored is the almost fully completed fuselage of a Canadian Car and Foundry (Westland) Lysander, with an additional section and parts of a Lysander half fuselage sitting next to it. The restored fuselage and cockpit is ready for the next step in the restoration process. Vince is one day hoping to see it take to the air as the third flying Lysander in Canada (Canadian Warplane Heritage flies a newly restored Lysander and Vintage Wings of Canada hopes to have their Lizzie in the air by the fall). There is much work to do on the airplane to get it to that stage, including the full restoration of the wings, tail, and engine. A long process yet and one that Vince hopes he’ll be around to complete.

To contact O’Con-Aircraft Supplies call Vince O’Connor at 905-852-5474.

More in the next Barnstormers eFlyer.....sign-up here to get your copy!


By Kevin Moore, Contributing Editor & Photographer
thestickandrudder@sympatico.ca

Return to eFLYER

 
Visit www.barnstormers.com - post an ad to be viewed by over 700,000 visitors per month.
Over 13 years bringing more online buyers and sellers together than any other aviation marketplace.
Copyright © 2009 All rights reserved.
UNSUBSCRIBE INSTRUCTIONS: If you no longer wish to receive this eFLYER, unsubscribe here or mail a written request to the attention of: eFLYER Editor BARNSTORMERS, INC. 312 West Fourth Street, Carson City, NV 89703. NOTE: If you registered for one or more hangar accounts on barnstormers.com, you must opt out of all of them so the eFLYER mailings will be fully discontinued.