All Metal norseman
- May 7, 2009
- Posted By: Bruce Whittingham
- Tags: none
| Posted: 5/7/2009 10:45:45 PM |
| Posted By: Ed Zaruk |
|
In Canadian Aviator’s latest Tales From the Lakeview, Bob Grant had little success convincing old-time pilots that CF-UUD was a MK VIII Norseman. It’s a shame because this truly was an innovative concept for the venerable freighter. Metalizing Norseman in Canada was started in Redditt with the rebuilding of CF-SAN. Ontario Central Airlines replaced the fabric belly with aluminium as this area that was prone to ice damage. Next, when CF KVB was rebuilt, the sides back to the cargo door were done in metal.
As Bob describes in his article, a mysterious pilot flew away with the airplane and it turned up in Canada, owned by Bud Mallory, who operated it in Fort Francis, ON. When Barney Lamm, who also owned OCA, acquired Canadian Voyager Airlines, this unique aircraft came to Redditt where Ed Hanratty had Rollie Hammerstadt give it a thorough going over. The airplane didn’t preform that well, and during his inspection, Rollie found the entire structure had a slight down bend. The conclusion both engineers reached, was that at some time during its life prior to Ursell metalizing it, the aircraft had flipped over on its back. Rather than strip the skin and straighten the frame, they opted to start from scratch.
Another fuselage, CF-OBE was selected and plans laid out to completely replace all the fabric with metal and use UUD’s wings. After replacing the metal stabilizer, but leaving the vertical fin intact, UUD was given a pair of good wooden wings and later sold to Dave Harvey, who operated it out of Red Lake for years.
It was the only Norseman ever to have the big door as seen in the photo below taken by Charlie Ursell in Texas, and well described by Bob in his article.
 CF-OBE, which became the only all metal Norseman rebuilt in Canada, never had anything but standard size cargo doors, although they were one piece. UUD bounced from pillar to post until Glen Crandall bought it, restored it, and has it in a private antique collection, in Panoka, Alta. |
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