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.