The 1966 plane, stored at Tamworth Airport since the collapse of Ansett in 2001, has been bought by the Queensland Air Museum from Sigma Aerospace to join its extensive collection of aircraft at Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast.

A significant aircraft on regional air routes around Australia for more than three decades, the F27 is one of only four left in the country, and a team of volunteers is keen to see its place in history isn’t lost forever.

Members of the museum will arrive in Tamworth on October 10 to carry out the massive job of preparing the aircraft for the journey to the Sunshine Coast and are looking for local volunteers to help.

It would involve removing the tail and wings and lowering the fuselage onto a transportation cradle before loading onto oversize trailers.

QAM F27 team leader and former Tamworth resident David Beazley is calling for retired aircraft engineers, anyone with mechanical skills and aircraft enthusiasts to lend a helping hand in the transfer.

“It’s not going to be an easy thing to get on those trucks,” Mr Beazley said.

“That’s why we are looking for retired engineers, particularly ex- East West Airline people who want to get their hands back in and have

a go.”

The museum has 50 aircraft in its collection but the F27 will be one of its largest undertakings yet.

“We had been looking at it for two or three months,” Mr Beazley said.

“I was very keen to get it and didn’t want to see it scrapped.

“All up the job will take between one and two weeks to get in pieces.”

The F27 will be one of the largest aircraft in the museum’s collection and will be fully refurbished and painted in its original colours.

“We still have to get engines and propellers for it,” Mr Beazley said.

“It will be about five or six months before it’s back to its former state but it will be on display straight away – as all our aircraft are.”