HARS DHC-4 Caribou Repaint

The DHC-4 Caribou or “Bou” as it’s known locally in Australia is perhaps one of the most iconic military aircraft to fly in Australia. Few are left, even fewer are flying. Australia is very lucky that the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) flies and operates two Bou’s from its base at Shellharbour, NSW. Despite thousands of man hours expended maintaining these aircraft, all through a fantastic volunteer workforce, the time has come for a big task which requires input and hopefully support from the wider Caribou, RAAF and Australian Aviation communities.

DHC-4 Caribou aircraft, numbers A4-210 and A4-234 have a rich and storied history in Australian service, worthy of books in their own right. 210 deployed to Vietnam and was operated by RFTV and 35SQN before suffering a landing accident. The aircraft returned to Australia via ship and was floated down a barge to Bankstown via the Georges River and repaired at De Havilland Australia. The aircraft is still slightly bent! 234 also served in Vietnam and was the last Caribou to leave the country at the end of the war – 50 years ago this year.

These two Caribou aircraft left RAAF service in 2009, and whilst receiving attentive care and maintenance at HARS since their arrival in 2012 which has kept both of these aircraft airworthy for thousands Australian’s to see both at HARS Museum and at airshows nationwide, it is becoming obvious to us that work will be required in the near term to keep these aircraft flying for the long term – namely stripping, corrosion repair and then repainting of the airframe. Both aircraft were last painted when in RAAF service and no amount of maintenance can keep paint perfect and corrosion away forever. Our goal is to return A4-210 to its original delivery Olive Drab, as a memorial to the aircrafts time in Vietnam while keeping A4-234 in its retirement camouflage, in order to bookend both the start and end of RAAF Caribou operations. The Caribou team is now approaching this significant task of repainting at least one aircraft initially (preferably two in the long term) by reaching out to the Australian Aviation Industry to seek support for this substantial project as well as asking the Caribou community to support their beloved aircraft.

Estimates from Douglas Aerospace outline the cost at $150,000AUD per airframe that is repainted and although HARS volunteers will endeavour to provide as much labour as possible to minimise costs, it is accepted that is beyond our ability to raise the funding required by the means that are available to us alone. HARS is seeking community support to help keep these aircraft flying.

Alexander Le-Merton

HARS – Caribou Project Member