By 1940, the twin engined Avro Anson was obsolete.
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It had flown first in 1935.
However, in the quickly evolving aircraft world, it was soon relegated to a training role.
In training schools throughout the British Empire, the Anson was used to train multi-engined bomber pilots and crew.
On September 29, 1940, two Ansons took off from Forest Hill near Wagga on a cross-country training exercise, first to Corowa, then to Narrandera, before returning to Forest Hill.
At an altitude of 300 metres over Brocklesby, near Albury, the two pilots made a banking turn.
Few aeroplanes offer pilots vision directly below them.
Leonard Fuller, the pilot in one Anson, lost sight of the second plane.
Suddenly, there was a grinding crash and bang.
The two Ansons collided.
The propellers of each plane ground into the other and bit into the other’s engine cowlings.
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The upper turret of the lower Anson wedged into the top Anson’s port wing root.
Its tailfin and rudder wedged into the upper Anson’s tailplane.
The two engines of the upper Anson stalled when they ground into the engine cowlings of the lower aeroplane.
Although the two planes were tightly wedged together, the engines of the lower Anson continued turning their propellors at full power.
Locked together, the two planes circled lazily.
The navigator aboard each aircraft bailed out followed by Jack Hewson, the pilot of the lower Anson.
He had been injured when the propellors blades of the top Anson had sliced through his plane’s fuselage.
Before Leonard Fuller, the other pilot, jumped, he tested the controls of his upper Anson.
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Despite not having the engines working on his aeroplane, Fuller found he could control the locked Ansons with the upper Anson’s ailerons and flaps.
The two jumped around "like a brick".
Fuller looked for a landing site close to a farmhouse six kilometres outside Brocklesby.
He landed both in a pancake landing.
Fuller later said that the landing was better than any he had made at Forest Hill the previous day when he had been practicing circuits, landing and taking off.
Both Ansons were repaired, saving $80,000.
This is $3.4 million today.
The top one was returned to service.
The lower one was used as an instructional airframe.
Hewson was treated for his back injury and returned to service.
Leonard Fuller was promoted to Sergeant and received a commendation from the Australian Air Board.
Proud of his feat, he spoke of it to the media without authorisation.
It cost him 14 days confined to barracks and seven days’ loss of pay.
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Fuller saw active service in the Middle East and in Europe.
He won a Distinguished Flying Cross for actions over Palermo in 1942.
He was commissioned as an officer that year and posted back to Australia as an instructor at Sale.
He was killed there when hit by a bus in March 1944 while riding his bicycle.
Fuller was just 25.
Hewson was also commissioned as an officer and discharged from service in 1946.
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