Following the theme of aircraft assuming new identities, Boeing Stearman E75 ZK-JID has recently changed ownership and with it identity to become ZK-BOE/2 from 19 March 2015. Thanks to Blue Bus we know this Stearman arrived in NZ during late 1982 flying under its previous FAA marks of N4036. It subsequently ended up in storage at Ardmore for a time before being registered ZK-JID to Pacific Southwest ltd (Len and Wendy Cowper) in December 1998. It was listed with White Island Airways for the best part of a year from late 1999 - did it operate from Whakatane?
For those interested, the first use of ZK-BOE was on the side of a 1959 Fletcher FU24.
 |
| As noted 09 March 2015. |
 |
| And again on 31 March 2015 now registered ZK-BOE but no visible registration marks. |
Hi Mike. White Island Airways was based at Rotorua. It was run by Warwick Bleakley, Colin Sutherland and Neville Worseley. They had a hangar next to the now-demolished aero club building. Cheers. Dobbyn
ReplyDelete