C-47 Dakota ZA947
The C-47 is a military version of the DC-3 airliner , which first flew in 1935 . Under the lend lease programme , nearly 2,000 Dakotas , as the aircraft became known in RAF service , were delivered to the UK , the first entering service with the RAF in India in 1942 . The Dakota eventually equipped 22 RAF squadrons and three Royal Canadian Air Force ( RCAF ) squadrons under RAF operational control . Dakotas served in every theatre of the war , most notably in Burma and also during the D-Day landings and the airborne assault on Arnhem in 1944 . C-47 Dakota III ZA947 is the last of its type serving with the RAF . This Dakota was constructed as a C-47A by Douglas at Long Beach , California , USA and was initially delivered to the USAAF on 7 September
1943 . A little over a week later , it was transferred to the RCAF and re-designated as a Dakota III . During WWII , it served entirely in Canada . After the War , Dakota ‘ 661 ’ operated in support of the Canadian forces in Europe from 1965 until 1969 , when the aircraft was declared surplus to requirements and sold to Scottish Aviation at Prestwick , which was operating on behalf of the Royal Aircraft Establishment ( RAE ). When the Defence Research Agency – the successor to the RAE – decided to dispose of it in 1992 , the aircraft was adopted by the RAF to be issued to the BBMF . It was taken on charge by the Flight in March 1993 .
ZA947 is now painted in the markings of a 31 Sqn Dakota ( FD781 ) which operated from India and over Burma in 1943 and ‘ 44 . This Dakota , flown by pilot Fg Off Mike Vlasto , landed on a short jungle strip in Japanese-occupied territory in April 1943 to rescue wounded and sick Chindit soldiers . It was later given the South East Asia Command ( SEAC ) pale-blue and dark-blue roundels and fin flash , applied to Allied aircraft to avoid confusion with the Japanese ‘ Hinomaru ’. In these markings ZA947 commemorates all those who served in the “ forgotten war ” in the Far East , especially the ground crew and aircrew who maintained and flew the Dakotas , and 31 Sqn , the “ Goldstars ,” in particular .