The Grumman TBF Avenger was produced by Grumman, and the Grumman TBM Avenger was made by General Motors. About 9830 of the aircraft were made – 7546 by General Motors, as the war effort required carmakers to assist with production of war machines.
The single-engine aircraft had three crew – a pilot, bombardier/gunner and a radio operator/gunner.
It had folding wings which could be set flat against the sides of the fuselage as a space saver on aircraft carriers.
Its payload was up to 2000lb (907kg) of bombs, and it had a range of 907 miles (1460km). Its top speed was 275 miles per hour (442km/h).
The Grumman Avenger first saw service at the Battle of Midway in 1942 during World War II in the Pacific. Six Avengers took part and only one survived.
Probably the most famous pilot of a Grumman Avenger was future 41st President of the US, George H W Bush. He was shot down while on combat over a Japanese-held island in September 1944, and bailed out – but both his crewmen were killed.
The Royal New Zealand Air Force received 63 Grumman Avengers, which were used in the Pacific.
After the war, the Grumman Avenger was trialled as an aerial top dresser.
In 1945 at Hood Aerodrome RNZAF pilots demonstrated to farmers in Masterton the capabilities of the Grumman as a top dresser.
They also spread fertiliser from Avengers beside runways at Ohakea Air Base.
The Grumman TBF-1C Avenger NZ2539, which would end up in the Havelock North Domain, arrived in New Zealand on the Peter White in 1944, and was assembled in Auckland.
The aircraft was sent to Fiji that year to be used as part of communications flights there, and returned to New Zealand in January 1945.
The RNZAF sold NZ2539 by tender to a top-dressing business, Bennett Aviation, Te Kuiti, in 1959.
The Hastings Jaycees bought it in 1965, and it was installed in the Havelock North Domain in August that year.
The aircraft was made kid-safe when it was mounted at the Domain. Plates were riveted over parts that fingers could get stuck in, and anything movable was disabled.
Apart from the missing engine, it looked (as the photos show) as if it was ready to take off.
By 1974, the Havelock North Borough Council wanted to dispose of the aircraft from the Domain. The Grumman was donated to private collector Ken Jacobs, from Auckland, and the council indicated Ken and a group of others were going to restore it.
Conditions were attached to the donation, including offering the aircraft to the Museum of Transport and Technology (Motat) on loan in perpetuity.
Ken Jacobs wrote to Motat in November 1974 to offer the NZ2539 for permanent exhibition and asking whether to take it from Havelock North to Western Springs (where Motat was located) for restoration.
Motat appeared to be non-committal and it appears the plane was never displayed there.
NZ2539 was shifted to Auckland and by the late 1990s was stored in an open field.
In July 2017, NZ2539's fuselage was shifted from Auckland to Tauranga's Classic Flyers Museum, with another trip required for other components stored in a shed.
The Classic Flyers chief executive, Andrew Gormlie, described it as "a real basket case of parts".
The objective of the move to Tauranga was to restore NZ2539, and when the Auckland owners had found out about Classic Flyers' restoration of another Grumman Avenger they contacted the museum.
Andrew Gormlie said they had 80 per cent of the Grumman Avenger and would look for other parts in New Zealand and overseas.
The restoration would be a joint project with the Auckland owners and carried out by 15 to 20 volunteers.
To get the plane to fly again would have cost an extra $2 million, so the restoration capability would mean it would just taxi down a runway.
• Can you add to this story, and especially about the aircraft's time from leaving Havelock North until the departure to Tauranga in July 2017? If so, please email me.
• Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is an EIT accounting lecturer, and in his spare time a recorder of Hawke's Bay's history.
