If you drive on the N1 from Cape Town to Stellenbosch or Paarl regularly you’ve probably noticed the Wijnland Auto Museum’s flagship attraction: A 50-seater passenger airplane mounted about 10 feet off the ground! MatieMedia set off to find out what the plane’s story is.
Located just off the N1 in Joostenberg Vlakte, the Wijnland Auto Museum, currently in its thirtieth year of existence, was established by Les Boshoff (84) back in 1978. Since then Boshoff has managed to build an impressive collection of over 300, mostly vintage, cars on which visitors can feast their eyes.
Besides running the museum, which has an admittance fee of R50, the collection now keeps Boshoff busy in many other ways as the cars are rented out to weddings, matric farewells and, specifically, to movie and advertising film productions. The museum itself is also a popular site for photo shoots and film productions.
The Wijnland Auto Museum is quite a popular attraction for both car enthusiasts and the general public alike. PHOTO: Wilhelm Schumann
According to the 84-year-old, the airplane’s story starts in Europe. While on a trip to Germany, Boshoff visited the Technik Museum Sinsheim, one of the largest technology museums in the world.
It boasts several airplane exhibitions and countless vintage motorbikes, cars, buses and tractors. Boshoff was amazed at how many visitors there were and ended up speaking to the curator of the museum.
“He [the curator] told me that before they had the airplanes the museum had terrible visitor numbers. But since the planes were added, they haven’t experience problems with visitor numbers again.
“And I thought: ‘If this can work in Germany it can definitely work at home.’ So I went home and started looking for a plane. After chatting to some of my contacts in the airplane scene I eventually heard of this specific plane.
“It belonged to a Nigerian aviation firm called Skyjet Aviation Services who were looking to sell some of their planes. So I bought it and, at the time, the airplane was working from Cape Town. The plane often flew to Windhoek, Walvis Bay and Springbok. At Cape Town International we took it apart, had it transported to the museum and then put it back together again ourselves,” says Boshoff.
The 1950’s Convair 580 faces the N1 and from the highway the plane is pretty hard to miss. PHOTO: Wilhelm Schumann
Somewhere in the plane’s history it used to fly in African countries where Arabic is spoken. As a result some of the emergency signage is Arabic. PHOTO: Wilhelm Schumann
Once on the inside of the 50-seater plane it becomes easy to forget that you are not actually on a runway at some airport, but on a piece of land, just off the N1, in Kraaifontein. PHOTO: Wilhelm Schumann
According to aircharterserviceusa.com, the plane, a Convair 580, was manufactured by the American based Convair Aircraft Corporation from 1947 to 1954.
[infogram id=”44541239-1b45-4064-ae73-b08bc139e1fe” prefix=”BAI” format=”interactive” title=”Convair 580″]
Belinda Maree (54), Boshoff’s partner and assistant for over a year now, says the whole airplane experience was very exciting.
“The plane arrived 22 September last year. It was nice to see how the plane got taken apart and put back together again…it was also very nice to see how excited Les was about it. I mean he organised the whole thing himself and worked very hard,” says Maree.
Boshoff and Maree share a laugh in front of the entrance to the indoor exhibition. PHOTO: Wilhelm Schumann
Vistor Gerry Halberstadt (45), an electrical engineer who lives in Stellenbosch and works in Cape Town, says, “I drive past here every day on the N1 and the airplane definitely caught my attention. I have been promising myself to visit the museum for 10 years now and today I finally decided to pop in. It was well worth it. It really isn’t something you see every day.”
A cabin with a view…of the N1: Some of the emergency exits are open, a sight one would never want to see under normal circumstances. PHOTO: Wilhelm Schumann
The cockpit really gives one an idea of how old the plane is and it’s hard to imagine that it was still in the air only a few years ago. PHOTO: Wilhelm Schumann
Boshoff feels the plane is fulfilling its purpose of attracting more visitors.
“I know that the plane works. There’s no question about that. It really gets the general public interested,” Boshoff says.
Watch the video below to take a walk through the Convair 580!