SINGAPORE-SELETAR
AIRPORT 1981 A selection of my photos taken at Seletar Airport, Singapore in August 1981 |
Since my last visit a year
earlier, Kris Air's freight operations had been taken over by a new company
Air Tenggara, which was also Australian-backed. Kris Air's Armstrong Whitworth Argosy N37807, leased from Australia, continued with Air Tenggara. It was having mantenance after removal of Kris Air markings including name Sir Stanford Raffles. |
Air Tenggara had just
taken delivery of Vickers Vanguard Merchantman
freighter G-APEG leased from UK |
I was pleased to catch
G-APEG outside four months later at Perth WA on 29 December 1981, when it
arrived from Seletar direct on a freight charter, carrying a single piece of drilling equipmernt weighing 6.5 tons. The flight plan quoted the operator as an Australian company based in Singapore |
Back to Seletar, where
this Thai Airways HS.748 was visiting |
Another HS.748 operator
was Australian-owned Airfast Indonesia PT which was based at Seletar. Airfast
had used Douglas DC-3s to carry oil drilling workers since 1974, but now most DC-3s were replaced by turbine equipment. HS.748 PK-OBV had just entered service. It had been in their Seletar hangar as VP-LIW on my 1980 visit |
F.27 Friendship 100 PK-OBP was another
recent addition to the Airfast fleet, purchased from Merpati Nusantara
|
Airfast purchased DC-3 N1QJ in 1979 just
for engines and parts. Its smart freshly painted appearance belied its true
condition. As N64422, it had been brought to the SE Asia war zone by Continental Air Services (CASI). Later in 1970s it was operated by Tri-9 Corporation at Seletar, Sahakol Air at Bangkok, Golden Eagle Airlines in Cambodia, Aereos Timor in Timor and others, in a variety of colour schemes. N64422 visited Port Moresby PNG in March 1977 with Tri-9 Corp titles. |
Grumman HU-16 Albatross
PK-PAM in Pelita Air Service scheme with flying sea horse motif on the tail. This was a Grumman-remanufactured G-111 civil model, delivered from Florida earlier that year |
Dirgantara Air
Services Albatross PK-VAA was being operated for the Conoco oil company.
This was previously with the Indonesian Air Force as PB-522 as a UF-1 Albatross |
SE Asia Air Transport's
ex Saudi Arabian Convair 340 N99875 languished with its nose wheel chained
and mould growing on the paintwork. It was later scrapped. |
Hornbill Skyways Short
SC.7 Skyvan 9M-AXM arrived from Sarawak with passengers |