Icelandic DC-4 Coventry 1970s

Here’s a link to a lovely landing shot – see credit for photographer. I well recall this aeroplane and photographed it myself (but in b&w) at East Midlands on one of it’s forays to the UK.

Tim

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Nordic-Air/Douglas-C-54E-Skymaster/0310881/&sid=d8af82d17ce97f87eb14ea9400e3fc67

That must have been the one! Thanks Roger and pass my thanks to Barry Clay. The vagaries of memory with increasing age, confusing Icelandic with Norwegian. Doh! According to the Air-Britain DC-4 book published in 1967, it was built as a C-54E but went to the USN as an R5D-4R then to USCG. There were a few R5Ds on the Berlin Airlift so this just might have been one of them.

I’m afraid Roger didn’t – I never got much past G-, F-, D- & N numbers !!!:o:D

Roger Smith.

I am sure Roger knows that LN is Norwegian.;)

LN-MOB was a C-54E, c/n 44-9147 registered to Bergen Air Transport and was scrapped in Zaire in 1981 as 9Q-CPB.

Reply from Barry Clay as follows…

” Roger I have checked through all of the official movements records for Baginton around that time,this is the only foreign DC-4 that was a visitor apart from an Irish registered example EI-ARS.
The visits for LN-MOB the well known ‘Moby Dick’ were on-
28-09-76
21-10-76
15-10-76
23-11-76
04-11-76

LN-MOB at Baginton on one of its many charters.
Barry.”

Hope this helps (although I don’t know if LN-MOB is Icelandic)

Roger Smith.

Thanks everyone for continued suggestions. It definitely wasn’t a USN R5D like one of these!

50876 about to rotate at Prestwick
91998 at Turnhouse

Another 6 that made it to the UK was TF-ISC.

This page is useful for the 6s in the north west at least.

http://www.nwan.co.uk/dc6.html

Remember that USN C-54 91998 was still active in the early 70s as well…

I’ll post your request on Barry Clay’s “Wings over Warwickshire” (WOW) forum where a number of Coventry spotters are involved. Will post back if any useful replies.

Roger Smith.

have a look at http://http://www.won winglo.scale-models.net/id39.htm. It has a history of Baginton including a photo of G-SIXB in Greenlandair scheme which may or may not help? Only had a qick scan through so may be some refrences to DC-4’s burried in the text?

Thanks Newforest and especially Galdi for all that info. It was definitely a DC-4/C-54, not a 6, and I was certain that it was an Icelandic aircraft until I read Galdi’s detailed post. Obviously my memory is adrift! After it parked and the crew went off to the city for a meal, I wandered down from the tower and. with the blessing of the handling agent, got inside, inspected the flight deck and even sat in the left hand seat musing on the aircraft’s history. Berlin Airlift? maybe even Ernest K Gann once flew it etc etc. Didn’t take any photos as it was dark.

Anyway, back to square one. What other DC-4s went through Cov in the 1970s? There couldn’t have been many!

A.T.
I think you must have your C-54/DC-4 confused with a DC-6. Here is the reason.

There were two airlines operating C-54´s/DC-4 in Iceland. They were Air Iceland (Flugfelag Islands) and Loftleidir Icelandic. Loftleidir Icelandic got rid of their last DC-4 in 1961 when it was sold to the UK as G-ARLF. Air Iceland got rid of their last DC-4 in 1967 when it was sold to South Africa.
The last operator of the C-54/DC-4 in Iceland was the Icelandic Coast Guard, which operated their aircraft (TF-SIF) until 1971, when it was sold to Singapore. I doubt very much this aircraft would have been wearing Icelandic registration marks “in the mid 70´s” on a cargo flight in the UK, but you never know!:eek:

Of DC-6 operators, there were two outfits operating cargo flights on Icelandic registrations. From 1971 to 1974 an outfit called Flugfrakt operated TF-OAD (registered in early 1971 and returned to lessor later in the year) and TF-OAE (registered on the 6th of June 1972 and crashed in Germany on the 6th of May 1974).
The other operator was Iscargo. It started operating TF-ABK in June 1973 but it was deregistered as returned to lessor on March 1974, but was later leased back to Iscargo and flew as N-17289 in Iscargo colours. It was burned at Reykjavik airport in 1982. The next aircraft was TF-ABJ, registered in 1973 deregistered in 1974 and burned in Reykjavik in 1978.
Then it is your best bet, TF-IUB. Operated by Iscargo from 1974 until it folded in 1981, dismantled in Reykjavik in 1983. The nose section still survives at the Icelandic Aviation Museum, Akureyri.
http://www.flugsafn.is/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=76&Itemid=143&lang=is

A bit of a long post, but here you go!

Couldn’t find a trace of your DC-4, wouldn’t be confused with DC-6, OY-DRM of Greenlandair which visited?;)