VH-AGR was flown to Australia to escape the Japanese advance in World War II, operated by the Netherlands navy in the East Indies (Indonesia). It was impressed into the RAAF, then sold after the war ended. Then the story gets complicated. There were three Ryan ST-M2s registered VH-AGR and this is the third, registered in 1958. The first (MSN 483) crashed and the fuselage of the second (MSN 475) was used it its rebuilt, giving it a new identity. Then it crashed and another fuselage used (MSN 466). This third aircraft was sold in the US an N2617W in 1981