5 Hueys, 4 Scooters, 2 Meatboxes, a Dragonfly, Lincoln and Huanquero...?

Top series of Pics man...thanks!

Thanks Guys. Now, Uruguay is a couple of hour ferry trip across the Rio de La Plata, or River Plate from Argentina. To get to Uruguay's capital Montevideo, you can go direct from Buenos Aires, which takes around 3 hours, or you can go via Colonia del Sacramento, or just 'Colonia', a former Portuguese colony whose cobbled boulevards have become the subject of photos by mobs of tourists the world over and a part of a World Heritage site.

Anyway, airframe wise, there isn't a whole lot (in fact, you could say that about Montevideo as a whole!), all of which can be found around Aeropuerto Carrasco, the country's primary international airport. The new terminal is rather flash, but (in common with the rest of Montevideo) the chronic litter problem kind of spoils the whole effect.



Inside the big sweeping building are two historic airframes, both advertising the nearby aviation museum; an SG-38,



...and this thing, which originally I thought was a French Borel Monoplane; a pioneer naval machine that saw early use in the Great War as a ship based float plane with the French and British navies...



It's actually a Castaibert; the very first aeroplanes manufactured in Argentina was designed by French engineer Paul 'Pablo' Castaibert and were characterised by the amount of horsepower each of the rotary engines put out. A total of 21 were built. Uruguay received a small number in 1913 as the first military aircraft in the country. This one is the machine that was flown on one of a series of long distance flights, to Mendoza in Argentina.

About a kilometre's walk from the terminal is the entrance to the military base, which serves as the training facility for the Uruguayan air force and home to 1 Brigada Aerea. Outside the entrance behind a fence are three airframes, which, despite the fact that I was photographing them from a public road, Uruguayan air force personnel are a little sensitive about having them photographed and I was shooed away!











Next, the small, but interesting Museo Aeronautico and the cleanest concrete floor in the whole of Montevideo.

Although a thoroughly modern country, Uruguay is something of a back water in South America and despite possessing an aging military air arm, both Fuerza Aerea and Armada have been well supported over the years. Owing to human rights issues (yet another Latin American military dictatorship that brutally tortured and murdered its own citizens), the military air arms have struggled with re-equipment of late and the most modern combat aircraft in Uruguay is the Cessna A-37 Dragonfly. The neat Museo Aeronautico (to be continued)

Good stuff Grant.

So educational too

Fantastic tour!

Nice shots!

Thanks again, guys. Before I had to dash off, I was stating that the Museo Aeronautico is located next to the entrance to Aeropuerto Carrasco and is a fine wee collection with interesting displays. Outside are these two; a Lockheed T-33 and a rather beat up Pluna DC-3. Pluna used to be Uruguay's national airline, and established South American routes in 1936, but after serious financial losses, in 2012 the government pulled the plug on the nationalised airline and its assets were sold off. It's sad to see this DC-3 in this state as the airline had a proud history and when it was moved to its current location it was intact and in good external condition. Now it just looks sad.





Inside a new purpose built building there are a number of well kept aircraft on the cleanest expanse of concrete I think I saw in Montevideo; the streets are littered with rubbish and dog sh*t and pavements are broken and chipped, causing unwary pedestrians to trip up and twist their ankles!

Stinson Voyager;



T-6D Texan;



The mainstay of the Fuerza Aerea Uruguaya's fighter force for many years, an F-80C Shooting Star of which 17 were supplied to the FAU;



Another T-33, one of eight AT-33As supplied;



Beech T-34; the first examples of these were sought from the US civilian market to replace T-6s, but a batch were acquired from Davis Monthan, Arizona and the Spanish Air Force.



Former RAF Wessex HC.2 XR497 was one of 11 Wessexes operated by the FAU from 1997 to 2003. The one outside the military base was formerly XR522.



Two Hueys, a UH-1H and short fuselage UH-1B;





One of 11 A-37Bs supplied to Uruguay and its last combat jet;



And finally, Chipmunk G-ANOW 'Urutau' was the first Chipmunk operated in Uruguay and conducted a tour of South America to encourage sales of the type. It was named 'Urutau' on arrival and became the property of the Director General of Civil Aviation and was registered as CX-BGH. The museum also holds CX-AVA, a former FAU airframe.



At another site undergoing restoration is a B-25 Mitchell, AT-11 Kansan, Lodestar and a rare Curtiss SNC-1 Falcon, which I was keen to photograph, but they are not able to be viewed by the public, unfortunately.

That's all for now, although I'll be placing images of Argentina's Buque Museos in future.

Great pictures

I agree, great stuff Grant.
It's nice to see museums from countries one doesn't immediately associate with an 'aviation interest'.

Awesome

Agree with Terry!

Really enjoyable and very educational. Thank you for this.

I'm back for more....

Thanks for the photos mate!

nuuumannn said:

From the handsome to the ridiculous

Click to expand...

Always liked the look of the IA-35 - thought it would made a nice extra as a Dornier Do-17 in a low budget war movie.

The nose and cockpit area looks a little poorly. Is that duct tape on the nose?

Good shots!

Thanks Graeme, it's painted framework. Looks a little heavily done, but it is painted.