by Steve Mackenzie

The Praga E114 Air Baby was a 1930s Czech designed light plane. 275 of them were built by the parent company and a further 28 under licence by Hillson in the UK as the Hillson-Praga. Three of the UK built airframes were imported into Australia during 1936-7 by Macquarie Grove Flying and Gliding School at Camden. VH-UXR survived until 11.9.43 when it was destroyed during a crash landing at Coode Island Aerodrome, Melbourne Vic. By that stage it had been camouflaged in line with regulations of the time, although technically not RAAF that is close enough.

Three Praga E.114 Baby sport monoplanes, VH-UXR, VH-UVP AND VH-UXQ, at Camden airfield, New South Wales, 1939. Image:Trove

Geoff Goodall has an extensive info page on the three local Air Babys at https://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/hillson-praga/hillsonpraga.html, highly recommended if interested in the type.

KP did a 1/72 short run kit of the Air Baby per the box info above (note it was never impressed into the RAAF as they state according to Geoff Goodall). Ed Russell did a model from this kit, two photos of which he distributed on Facebook per below. BTW images on Geoff Goodall's site show the nose art as being a lion with the words "Leo Junior".

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