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Hamilton Metalplane

Thirty-five years ago, Jack Lysdale and a small group of volunteers completed the restoration of the only remaining Boeing Hamilton H-47 Metalplane. The airplane was built in 1929, and it went to the Canadian Forest Service and was later owned and flown by the famous great north pilot Joe Crosson, flying it on floats and wheels all over northwestern Canada, the lower 48 states, and Alaska. The Hamilton served as a bush plane until it was taken out of service July 10, 1947. By the time the bits and pieces were brought back to the lower 48, the project was in pretty rough shape. In the mid-1950s an attempt was made by the 20-year Club of Northwest Airlines to restore the airplane, but that effort was later halted by management. The parts eventually were obtained by Jack Lysdale, and the real restoration began in 1971. Completed in August of 1975, it was the Grand Champion Antique at the AAA Fly-in that year, and in 1976 it was the Silver Age Champion at EAA Oshkosh. It’s been owned by the Lysdale family all these years (Jack passed away in 1992), and now they have decided it’s time to sell the one-of-a-kind restoration. For more on the Hamilton, which will be auctioned on January 23, 2010, by Barrett-Jackson, here are four hyperlinks:

• History of Hamilton Metalplane, by George Hardie, Vintage Airplane, May, 1976
  
• Jack Lysdale’s Hamilton Metalplane, by Noel Allard, Vintage Airplane, October 1976
  
• Video interview with Gary Lysdale, Jack’s son, and footage of the Hamilton on display in Hangar 5 at Fleming Field in St. Paul, Minnesota
• Barrett-Jackson Auction website for lot 1307
  

For additional photos of the Hamilton Metalplane visit Max Haynes’s photography website Maxair2air.com