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Commonwealth Aircraft Company CA-28 Ceres This Australian topdressing aircraft represents the transition from aircraft modified for topdressing, to purpose-built ones. Based on the Wirraway, itself a derivative of the North American Harvard, the Ceres was Australia’s first purpose-built crop-dusting aircraft, and first flew in 1958.
The New Zealand topdressing industry had relied entirely on Tiger Moths from 1949 until the late 1950s. By then the Tiger Moths were becoming worn-out, parts were hard to come by and they became uneconomic. Topdressing companies started to use small aircraft modified for topdressing, such as De Havilland Beavers and Cessna 180s and 185s. Later, purpose-built agricultural aircraft were imported, such as this one, as well as the Piper Pawnee, Cessna Agwagon and Auster Agricola. By the 1960s New Zealand was producing its own agricultural aircraft, in particular the highly successful Fletcher Fu-24, which was designed in America for New Zealand conditions, assembled in New Zealand and sold all over the world.
ZK-BPU in flight in James Aviation colours. Originally ZK-CEL, it was imported as a single-seater but had a second seat added as a rear cockpit in 1961 and was re-registered as ZK-BPU. It operated in the bottom half of the North Island and in its life it suffered two crashes and a forced landing, a normal record for a topdressing aircraft. Walsh Memorial Library collection, MOTAT.
Date: 1959 Manufacturer: Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation Pty Ltd Type: Low-wing topdressing monoplane Wing span: 14.30 metres (46 ft 11 in) Length: 9.36 metres (30 ft 81/2 in) Engine: 1 x 600HP Pratt & Whitney Wasp S1H1-G 9-cylinder radial air-cooled engine Accommodation: Single-seat in enclosed cabin
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