Percival Vega Gull VH-ACA, seen recently in storage in Queensland, will soon be back in the UK for restoration to fly.

More than 50 years after it was withdrawn from the Australian register and seemingly lost forever, Percival Vega Gull VH-ACA has been acquired by Kent-based brothers Gerry and Alan Smith from an owner on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

Export permits have been granted, and the rare four-seat cabin monoplane, one of only two survivors of the type, will soon be freighted to the UK, where the brothers will work full time at their strip to get it back to flying condition.

Built at Luton with the c/n K98, this Vega went straight to Australia, being registered on April 13, 1938 to the Hon R.G. Casey, DSO, MC. From January 1940 to June 1946 it was operated by No 1 Communications Unit of the Royal Australian Air Force as A32-2. Postwar it became VH-BQA, being struck off the register on June 30, 1959. The only other surviving Vega Gull is G-AEZJ, which is operated from Biggin Hill by David Hulme.