History | |
---|---|
Australia | |
Name | HMAS Air View |
Operator | Royal Australian Navy |
Ordered | 4 March 1944 |
Builder | Fellows & Stewart, Wilmington, California |
Commissioned | 20 November 1944 |
Decommissioned | 30 September 1946 |
Fate | Transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force in 1949 |
Name | 02-109 |
Operator | Royal Australian Air Force |
Acquired | 1949 |
Fate | Sold to private owners, 1985 |
Status | Undergoing restoration, 2012 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type | Miami-class air-sea rescue boat |
Displacement | 23 long tons (23 t) |
Length | 63 ft (19 m) o/a |
Beam | 15 ft 4 in (4.67 m) |
Draught | 4 ft (1.2 m) |
Propulsion | 2 × 630 hp (470 kW) Hall-Scott Defender V12 petrol engines |
Speed | 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph) |
Endurance | 14.5 hours |
Complement | 7 or 8 |
Armament | 2 × twin .50 cal. M2 Browning machine guns |
HMAS Air View (923) was a Miami-class 63-foot Air-Sea Rescue Boat that was operated by the Royal Australian Navy during World War II, and later by the Royal Australian Air Force. Built by Fellows & Stewart in Wilmington, California.
The Miami class rescue boats were wooden-hulled, and powered by two 630 hp (470 kW) Hall-Scott Defender petrol engines giving a top speed of 31.5 knots. They were armed with two twin .50 calibre M2 Browning machine guns mounted either side of the bridge. The crew comprised one officer in command, a coxswain, two engineers, two seamen and one or two radio operators. [2]
Air View was one of a class of twenty boats ordered on 4 March 1944. [1] They were all Model 314 boats, designed by the Miami Shipbuilding Corporation, of Miami, Florida, but built at a number of shipyards in California. [3] Air View was built by Fellows & Stewart in Wilmington, California, as hull C-26683 [4] and arrived at Sydney aboard the MV Laponia in June 1944, and was commissioned on 20 November 1944. [1]
Air View was stationed in and around Sydney until September 1945, when she sailed for Darwin, and subsequently operated in the Torres Strait into 1946. [5]
Air View was placed into reserve on 30 September 1946, and in 1949 she was one of thirteen RAN rescue boats transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force, [1] and renamed 02-109. She was stationed at Neutral Bay in Sydney, and in Townsville, Queensland. [6] [7]
The boat was sold by the RAAF to private owners in 1985, being the last of her class still in service. In 2011 the boat was acquired by a Melbourne based scuba-diving training company and is undergoing restoration. [8] [9]
Air View is listed on the Australian Register of Historic Vessels. [10]
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