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'Shaya
Manzi' Africa's last remaining 'seaplane'
Africa's only seaplane is located in Cape Town, South Africa. Shaya Manzi was built by Republic in 1947 on the P47 Thunderbolt production line. We found the aircraft derelict in a barn in Alabama, shipped her to Cape Town and spent 5 years to restore her to an even better than original condition.
The
restoration crew replaced everything except the serial number tag and the seat
frames. Along the way we replaced approximately 35,000 rivets and added some
modern creature comforts in the form of a 340 hp Simuflight Lycoming GO-480
engine conversion, a new three bladed reversible propeller, six bilge pumps and
a set of sexy carbon fibre droop tips. After a complete restoration, ZS-ORX was
ready to fly in December 2002.
See
her staring in the horror movie 'The
Breed' (Quicktime Required)
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