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In
1953 Dr. Henry Millicer entered and won from 103 other contestants, a
design competition held by the Royal Aero Club of Great Britain for a
two-seat light aircraft. A
small team was formed to build a wooden prototype, VH-FMM, which first
flew on the 31st of March 1959 piloted by Flt. Lt. Randall
Green. Promoted
by its founder, Mervyn Richardson and his son Gary, the Victa Lawnmower
manufacturer formed an aviation division in 1960 to manufacture and
develop Millicer’s design as the Victa Airtourer.
The first prototype flew in December 1961 with the first
production machine flying in mid-1962.
The
Airtourer was an immediate success, so much so that the U.S.
manufacturers of light aircraft began to ‘dump price’ their aircraft
on the Australian market. Victa
applied to the Australian Government for protection against this tactic,
but in early 1967 after a much delayed Tariff Board Hearing, Victa
closed down production. A
total of 170 Airtourers had been built.
The tooling was sold to AESL in New Zealand which continued to
build the aircraft.
AESL developed the 4 seat Victa Aircruiser design into the successful CT4 Airtrainer used for primary pilot training by many airforces including 50 by Australia's RAAF, and later 26 by BAE Systems at Tamworth, demonstrating the lost opportunity of ongoing Australian manufacture caused by the Tariff board decision. The Museum’s Airtourer, VH-BWI, spent most of its life with the Aero Club of South Australia. It was acquired by the Museum in 1989. The Australian National Aviation Museum Home
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