GEOFF RUSSELL COLLECTION
No. 10701. Klemm L 25 d II (VH-UUR c/n 796)
Photographed at Bankstown Aerodrome, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, ca. 1975, by Geoff Russell

Klemm L 25 d II

07/31/2011. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "Produced by Leichtflugzeugbau Klemm GmbH in 1933, this aircraft was fitted with an 88 hp Siemens 'Sh 13 a' five-cylinder air-cooled radial engine. Initially registered D-EHIV, it was sold to the Missions-Verkehrs-Arbeitsgemeinschaft (MIVA, missions transport association). After being baptized 'St. Paulus' by the Archbishop of Cologne, it was registered in the new Swiss register as HB-XAL to Father Frederick Zeigler at the abbey of Einsiedeln, Switserland, on April 8, 1935. (The reserved registration CH-418 in the old register was not taken up.)

Subsequently it was transferred to New Guinea, on loan to the Catholic Mission of the Holy Ghost at Alexishafen, it was entered in the Australian registry as VH-UUR on August 4, 1936. Pilots on these missionary flights were German Willy Schafhausen and Australian T.S. 'Stan' Johnson; eventually VH-UUR was reregistered to Johnson, later to Madang AT Co. On the outbreak of the WW II hostilities Johnson transferred the aircraft to Australia, where it ended up stored at Taringa near Brisbane, Queensland.

In 1951 Johnson sold the aircraft to Colin B. McLeod of Southport, Gold Coast, two years later it was sold to Alex Oliver of Gunnedah, New South Wales. In the 1960s the engine was replaced by an 100 hp Continental O-200 four-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine which basically left uncowled. In 1997 VH-UUR was sold to present owner Richard 'Roy' Fox from Sydney. The picture shows the forward cockpit covered, which can act as a luggage compartment, it can be converted back with windscreen for passenger use."


Created July 31, 2011