Caravans built out of aircraft components

[Franklin1]

1949 article about a caravan trailer made out of an aeroplane fuselage:

[Don Ricardo]

Airvan advertised on Ebay, April 2009:











Edited description by seller:

This listing is for a caravan being sold by my father... Below is his description -

Airvan with some provenance , built at Bankstown airport in the 50s 60s by the senior licensed airframe mechanic Ray Pugh at Fawcett Aviation as a prototype of a series to be called Airvans, entirely built from new aircraft grade aluminum panels, spars and struts from war surplus parts originally destined for the repair of Spitfires and other war birds, the van is 99% aluminum including the chassis, which would do credit to a B52 undercarriage.

The aluminum floor is riveted to the chassis, van is riveted - double skinned, roof is also double skinned with insulation, the internal aluminum furniture - wardrobe, bed, cook top sink unit and roof lockers, are integral with the body for extra strength, the aircraft windows are thought to be from a Dakota, DC3.that made a heavy landing at Bankstown and was dismantled for parts.

I was chief ARB inspector for Dept of Defence contracts in the same hanger and had daily contact with Ray Pugh. Due to high costs of building the van, it was never mass produced, Ray eventually ended up with the van and brought it to Hervey Bay when he retired. Sadly , he died in the 80's. I also retired to Hervey Bay and bought the van from a sale , having recognized it.

It is very strong, light weight and can easily be towed by a Austin Seven, or Mini , I can even tow it with my 120cc quad bike! It does require a coat of paint of your choice, the van is wired for a basic 240v mains supply , one light three power points, no provision for a stove other than a camping stove, space under the sink for a fridge, it has a double bed, and the dining area seats make up as a single bed, ( no cushions , mattress or curtains with it , I don't have any ) handpump to sink from under floor tank.

An outside hatch allows for stowage of tents and camping gear under the double bed , in the photos you will see a black open top box , that is the storage area under the bed , also accessible from outside as just mentioned above .

The roof hatch is cleverly designed to open at front or back or straight up , it's a good size too , plenty of ventilation there. Dimensions of the van are :- 6' wide , 11' long , tow bar 2Ft 3In , total length 13Ft 3" .

At sometime the old perspex rear window was replaced with a fly screened opening window fitted with a sun visor, the door was missing I have replaced it with a similar door. The old crazed perspex in the DC3 windows has been replaced with tinted polycarbonate. There are two small unlined areas one above the door exposing the curved leading edge of wing rib possibly spitfire ( see photos ) , the other a flat panel behind a seat, I can only assume these were left to show frame construction details, easy fixed or leave them as a talking point. The two front teardrop clearance lamps are missing...

...the chap in the leather flying helmet is Ray Pugh , builder of the Air-Van...

[Franklin1]

That's an interesting story, eh DonR?

In the Home-made Caravans thread in this History section, there is another story of a caravan made out of an old aircraft. See reply #12.

From memory, jbj is familiar with information about this van.

cheers,
Al.

[JBJ]

Hi,

I remember taking these pix at Mt Gambier Nationals,

This was supposedly built in the early 60's from memory. The people using it were vague, because it belonged to their parents, from near Hamilton in Southern Vic.













JBJ

[Don Ricardo]

Photos posted by Mark T on 28 August 2005 of a caravan discovered and eventually purchased by Fixvans:

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On 16 November 2005, Fixvans wrote:

Hi everybody, the van was built in 1954 by a local; Jim Flatterly. The plane that it was built from was a Fairy Battle, these planes were used at Evans Head for gunner practice. The door in the van is the landing flap, the floor is the skin of one of the wings. Jim used a variety of other panels to finish the van. All the solid rivets were hammered by hand resulting in alot of complaints from the neighbours. He used equiptment at the airbase to roll and form the aliminium. Even the interior was aliminium. He also used 1928 overland stub axles and wheels. it was built this way so it was light enough not to need brakes fitted. HIs son told me it was polished enough so that he could comb his hair in it! Jim cant wait to see again as he said he's often thought about what happened to it.

The fella i bought it off was the second owner, he stripped the interior out as he was going to make a trailer out of it. i asked him if he would swap if for a trailer, a kindly agreed.

then i had to try to find a trailer cheep! a person came into the workshop looking for a wind out window. i told him he could have the one out of my old bondi for a box of beer. two weeks later, a fella i had working for me asked me if i wanted an old trailer; i offered him the box of beer, he agreed and now i own the caravan.

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Photo of caravan as it was originally built, being towed by a 1936 Prefect, posted by Franklin1 on 14 January 2008:

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

I found this story from the Melbourne Argus of Monday, 27 March 1950 (p 6) about a fifth wheeler built from aircraft parts bought from disposal stores. Some more evidence that aircraft scrap material was quite widely used for home built caravans post WWII.

The external pic suggests some similarities in construction to the Highway Princess fifth wheeler we are familiar with (not that that was built from aircraft parts). Note the name of this caravan - "Wanderin' Thru'"



(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22818659 )

[Don Ricardo]

On 24 October 2010, Tilly wrote:

Hi Vvanners,
Sorry if this is posted in the wrong topic.

I have been watching and learning from this site for the past 12 months and nearly wet my pants when my neighbour rolled into town a few weeks ago towing this van!

Had a chat to him about it the other day and he tells me it's a 1948 model made out of alluminium, possibly from an old aircraft. The van was purchased in victoria (maybe seymour area, can't remember) and has sadly been gutted inside. There are sheets of ply lining the interior and timber framed flyscreens on the rear windows.

Any info on the van would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

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The caravan was subsequently acquired by Vernon who wrote on 10May 2011:

...We are very happy and excited to say that over the Easter break we did a quick trip down to Kels old stomping ground of Victoria. We have been on the hunt for some time looking for another shinny project to compliment Vernon and our R and S Series Vals. (As many before us it is hard to stop at one.) It would seem we have now found it.
The new addition to our family is Valmay.

The owner had the van for something like 16-20 years. It came from a chicken farm where they gutted her and used it to store eggs and assume deliver them. The inside is almost gutted, however we have been able to piece the layout a little. The exterior is reasonable. The back on one side has been substantially damaged (this was obtained whilst on transport many years ago) the other not as bad, with other imperfections here and there. The windows are thought to be brass and with a little bit of attention before school pick up one day a small portion was polished and came up a treat. Actually before quite a few pick ups bits here and there have been attacked. A fair bit of paint will have to be removed and attention to the aluminium before any serious polishing will take place.

The past owner who had a history in the metal field is certain it is of aviation aluminium, and built by a coach builder particularly when you look at the front and back windows, and the lip that runs along the bottom of the van.

Yes Cobber you were right the rear lights were reproduced by the past owner as they were not on Valmay originally. For registration we would assume...

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Further photos and information about this caravan can be found here.

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ADDENDUM - January 2023: On 14 January 2023, Vernon posted here that the caravan shown was for sale. Vernon also commented that it was believed that the caravan "was built in the 50's around Ballarat by a bloke whom built aircraft during the war". The post included a photo of the rear of the van and some internal photos.



Looking towards the front:



Looking towards the back:



Nearside showing the wardrobe:

[seeshell]

We recently purchased a home made 1951 bondwood caravan equipped with a Jones wheel. By coincidence, I had seen the van before on the forum; there is a picture of it at the Coledale event in 2005 included in Post #13 of the Dolly Wheel thread here.

History

The original builder, who we have been able to trace, was an aircraft factory worker with De Havilland. He worked at the Bankstown Airport facility, in NSW, which had been approved by the Australian War Cabinet to produce aircraft for the RAAF. He built the van in 1950 using surplus plywood used in the construction of aircraft for the Pacific campaign.


Construction

DHA had established its expertise in the field of wooden aircraft construction; it developed the 'sandwich' fuselage construction method consisting of balsa between two layers of spruce laminated with casein (milk protein) based glue. Almost no metal fasteners were used in construction, even during assembly. This provided strength and saved weight. Fabric was doped on the outer skin for weather proofing.

The casein glue used to build the aircraft in overseas factories didn’t hold up to the tropical heat and humidity in the Pacific; a number of spectacular delaminations and failures lead to an engineering review. On recommendation, Aerolite, the first man made epoxy (with waterproof and heat resistant properties) was substituted for casein. There were no more failures.

The van was built in exactly the same way as airframes from the De Havilland factory. The external skin and internal panels have been glued to laminated beams; this can be seen under the beds and in the cupboards. It appears no nails or screws were used in the original construction, as even the wardrobes and cupboards are bonded to the frame. Originally the roof was doped, just like the aircraft built by De Havilland. The owner from 2008 to 2011 was not sure how to repair the roof, and covered it with the aluminium skin.

Outside Front view



Side Rear View



To see more about this van click here

[Deleted]

thought i'd add marvin to the "vans made from aircraft bits" thread.



marvin was built after the war (WW2) by an aircraft engineer who worked for an aircraft factory in sydney using surplus war materials.

you can read more about marvin here and here.

conti

[chippydave01]

Better jump on the bandwagon.

I even forgot that I still own this thing till I read this thread. I have it stored at my mates place and he is using it as a garden shed

Its got no timber floor in it so we just put some scrap bits of ply on the floor.
I picked it up a few years ago from from a guy that lived near Bankstown airport. He got it of his neighbour who worked there.
It has a 1950 and 1951 rego imprint label on the front window.







The outside has been painted and most of the inside is painted.
Its a fair bit work to get on the road.But it makes a good shed. .
Definately not on my priority list at all.Any way he is a good mate and he is getting good use out of it storing Holden parts
Cheers Dave

[earlee]

I will jump on the band wagon too ... or motorhome wagon...?

this one has no question as to origin... and i absolutely love it!

[DC3Td]

Some more recent pics of above picture by Earlee:







gordon

[DC3Td]

Mine:



Ceiling/Interior











gordon

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

A couple more examples of caravans built out of aircraft components after World War II. It appears that part of the motivation was that the basic building block in these cases - the aircraft fuselage - provided a relatively cheap starting point.

First a 43 ft semi-trailer caravan built from a Douglas Dakota troop carrier and reported in the Adelaide Advertiser on Monday, 21 May 1951 (p 3). The aircraft cost only 50 pounds, but the cost of the full project was 750 pounds:


(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45723254 )

Note the comment from the owner/builder: "When attached to the towing truck the unit measured 50 ft. from bumper to bumper, and weighed four tons. On the road it was no more difficult to handle than any average semi-trailer, Mr. Fry added."

A further report on Mr Fry's caravan was published in the Melbourne Argus on Friday, 28 July 1950 (p 7). Although some of the finer details differ from the first report, note that the dining table seats 12!:



(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22913825 & nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22913826 )

A second example is a caravan which was built from the fuselage of Liberator bomber. This one was quite small - only 22 ft long - but note that it had four wheels and was towed by an ordinary sedan. I've stared long and hard at the photo, but can't work out whether the van was a tandem or had a wheel at each corner with the front wheels on a turn table. I suspect the latter:



(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56957070 & nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56957104 )

Don Ricardo

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Addendum - August 2017: Following is another report about the Fry's caravan shown at the beginning of this post.  The photos are much clearer:


(Source: Australian Monthly Motor Manual, February 1949, page 19)

This article was originally posted by Franklin1 here on 23 April 2008.

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ADDENDUM - October 2021: A nice clear photo of the Fry’s caravan on tour, posted by Dennis F on the Classic Australian 20th Century Street Scenes Facebook page in May 2021:

[cobber]

Curtiss Wright caravan in Australia.

During my search for the origins of my 'Alley Van' I got a lead to the American built 'Curtiss Wright Industries' caravans.
It turns out at least one of them immigrated to Australia, ( I don't think we have heard of this van in Australia before... have we? )





You can read the story about it by the people who own it if you can do a Google search for ' stalking Curtiss wright airstream family' ...(because I can't get the link to work ) 
I finally got it to work CLICK HERE

Cobber. 

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

Here's the story of the Douglas DC3 motorhome that Earlee and DC3Td first told us about in 2012 (see higher up this thread). The article below was published on the ABC website in 2018, here: www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-24/how-douglas-dc3-military-plane-became-musical-campervan-in-qld/10221054















Unfortunately a video embedded in the ABC article has expired, so I didn't copy that section.

Don Ricardo

[nigel]

Some might find this old homemade caravan interesting.

In 1946 John “Jack” Thomas Leed MBE bought a Martin Mariner seaplane from Lake Boga. He had said to his wife that he would make a caravan for family trips, and when he saw the plane, he just knew this was just idea.
The following year, Jack made a caravan (The Pyramid Hill Flying Caravan) out of the nose section. The size was big enough so that you could walk in without hitting your head. It was large inside, and many storage spaces and appliances including a bath. The very light weight and aero dynamics of the of the plane made towing the caravan a dream.

Here are some photos



Jack Leed with his caravan



On holidays in 1950



Martin Mariner seaplane on Jack Leed’s farm 1946

More details and photos can be found here.

The Pyramid Hill Flying Caravan

[Roehm3108]

Love your post Nigel! Today they would have added slide-out delta wings from a Concorde on each side for awnings.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Nigel,

Fascinating to read about the caravan built from the seaplane. Thanks for telling us about it. I presume Jack Leed is a relative of yours? He obviously had a creative streak in any case. Most of us would look at the plane and see...a plane. He looked at it and saw a caravan.

After World War II a number of people used the same idea as Jack by building caravans from aeroplanes or from aeroplane components and left over materials, as shown on this thread which you may find interesting.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

I recently received an email from Griffin in which he wrote:

"I keep in touch with the Forum and I see the recent post on the Flying Boat van and amazed that it takes so long for these things to appear. I went through the post and saw there are two DC3 conversions that don't appear to be there so I've attached one and maybe you can add it for me."

Accompanying the email was the following article published in 1992 about a motor home built in 1947 from a C47 Dakota aircraft and a 1940 Chevrolet truck chassis:


(Source: Parts Express, November 1992)

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

Here’s yet another caravan built out of aircraft components. The link for the photo from the State Library of Queensland collection was found and posted by Kenny here on 24 September 2021. The photo is captioned ‘Caravan made from a converted aircraft, Kalinga, Queensland’:


(Source: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Negative number: 201551 hdl.handle.net/10462/deriv/117627 )

This is an interesting one because it is a semi trailer-arrangement and both the prime mover and the caravan are made up from the aircraft. There were quite a few semi-trailer caravans built out of aircraft after the Second World War (see higher up this thread) but no other instances that we’ve seen where both the truck and trailer were bits of planes.

Thanks for providing the link Kenny.

Don Ricardo

[leeron]

What about Cobbers Aluminium van?

[cobber]

G’day Leeron,
Sorry mate, been asleep on the job in recent years, one of the reasons I passed this van onto Strugglebrook so it could be restored.
So I’ll just post a couple of photos of it together with a link to the original thread so folk can see what I did to it and how Strugglebrook finished it off.






vintagecaravans.proboards.com/thread/14135/cobbers-strugglebrooks-aluminium-caravan

Cobber.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Cobber,

How on earth did we miss including your 'aircraft van' on this thread Cobber, especially after Leron's reminder? Glad you've redressed the matter now.

Not just you asleep at the wheel, it seems!

Don Ricardo

[cobber]

Jan 19, 2023 22:51:20 GMT 10 Don Ricardo said:

Hi Vernon (Des and Kel),

Good to hear from you again, but a bit sad to hear that you're selling 'Valmay'. Hopefully she will be passed on to someone who is able to carry her restoration forward after she's been in your safekeeping for so many years.

I thought it might help if prospective buyers could see the photos of the van without having to cycle through the links so I've used my admin powers to add the photos in so that they show directly in your post. Hope that's ok?

There's also a post on Valmay in the 'Down History Lane' thread on caravans built from aircraft components here but no internal photos, so again if it's ok, I'll copy the internal photos to add to that post.

Don Ricardo

G’day Don R.

It was your post to Des and Kel regarding the selling of their van ‘Valmay’ and you providing a link to the aircraft components caravans thread in DHL that prompted me to look at that thread again.
I then realised the thread was missing at least one well known van made from aircraft pieces 😫

Looking through old posts on various threads in this forum can be very entertaining, I amused myself recently researching old posts in the ‘Vintage caravan runs and events’ thread at the time when this forum was just getting into gear, good memories. 😉

Cobber.