Thursday 29 October 2009

WWII Harvard T6

It is a very clear fact that most men (and women) interested in vintage vehicles, are also very interested in vintage aircraft; I certainly fit into this category, and I'm discovering that I'm not alone.

Prismacolor pencil on white archival stock © Paul Chenard 2009

A gentleman from British Columbia commissioned me a sketch of him racing his Triumph Spitfire in 1964. He liked the result so much, that he commissioned to sketch him in a WWII Harvard T6 he had the privilege of flying this past Summer.

Prismacolor pencil on white archival stock © Paul Chenard 2009

It reminded me that there was a Harvard for sale about 25-30 years ago at the Fredericton (my hometown) airport, and I was wrangling to find the money, which was only about $25000.

The reality of preservation, maintenance and storage sunk in ... needless to say, I didn't get it. I wonder what they are trading for now?

3 comments:

Jeffery Blackwell said...

Paul, as always beautiful drawings, both. I have the plane thing, too, but not as bad as the car thing.

My dad was a pilot, and one of my very first blog postings, very shortly after he died was about my remembrance of flying with him.

The picture that accompanied the post? My dad in the cockpit of what he called a "Texan" or an SNJ. It seems to be the same type of plane.

Automobiliart.com said...

Jeff
Thanks for commenting.
I read your great post on flying with your dad ... he would have very much appreciated it.
And you're right, it is exactly the same aircraft, the American Texan was the Canadian Harvard.
I'm glad we've met ... I'll be following your blog from now on.
Cheers!

Dayle's Painted Diary-Dayle Dodwell said...

Your plane drawing's great. Thanks for your comment.
Dayle