As briefly reported last month, Karl Kjarsgaard's organisation HP57 Rescue (Canada) has successfully imported the remains of two Handley Page Hastings transports into Canada. This is an exciting development, as the Hastings' wings are nearly identical to those of the type's sister, the Halifax. The parts recovery makes the recreation of not just one, but hopefully two Handley Page Halifax bombers a distinct possibility. Karl has the pedigree to make this happen, having been the driving force behind the recovery of Halifax NA337 from a Norwegian fjord in 1995 and its subsequent restoration at the National Air Force Museum of Canada in Trenton, Ontario. This story begins a couple of years ago, when Karl spotted an advertisement in a British magazine noting the discovery of Hastings wing parts in a long-dormant scrapyard on Malta. He had already planned to visit the country to pay tribute to a recently deceased friend, Canadian fighter pilot W. C. 'Bud' Cornell, a veteran of the Malta campaign in 1942. Kjarsgaard wanted to see for himself the land from which Connell had flown and fought, and to present a copy of the pilot's logbook to the Malta Aviation Museum.
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