It is possible that the flight by Dakota was from London to Shannon and then onward by DC4, DC6 or Connie. Aer Lingus commenced a service from Shannon to London in 1947.
HTH
Tony K

I was just talking on the phone to an old friend of mine up near Grantham, mainly shop, ie planning, when we got talking about the BBMF do on saturday, at this point he raised a very interesting subject.
He said that in 1947, his mother and father emigrated to Canada by aircraft, Heathrow? to Shannon and then by three hops to Newfoundland then Toronto.
He said that his late father always insisted that the a/c was a DC3 Dakota, I pointed out that it was very unlikely, but his old man was in the army during the war and probably knew what a Dak was.
Apparently on landing approach in Newfoundland, one of the main wheels had frozen in the up position and had to be freed by banging the a/c down the runway, his parents thought that their trip was going to end in a fireball.
Anyway their sojourn in Canada didn’t last long and they came back to the UK on the Queen Mary 3 years later.
So, does anyone have any knowledge of transatlantic DC3 flights in the late 40’s, my pal is keen to know. Could it possibly be a case of making use of flying back the multitude of European based Daks back to the States after the war. Over to the experts.

Some bits of two shot down Jindiviks have recently been reported at Baldonel in Ireland.

Washed ashore on the SE Coast of Co Wexford. They were at the AAIU facility for some time and kindly allowed us to have them for the Museum at Baldonnel. We collected them in January and would appreciate any additional information.
Tony K

It isnt.

Bex you are thinking about later RAF aircraft. No Spitfires were retired through ‘fatigue’ as this was not a recognised problem in WWII and no fatigue measuring process was in place for this type.

You make an interesting point Mark V, do you know what the position was with Spitfires operating with other Air Forces into the fifties and sixties, excluding shortage of spares of course?
Tony K

The Grace Spitfire ML407 when it was sold by the Irish Air Corps had 1082 hrs. up of which 320hrs was with the RAF (2nd TAF). Perhaps Carolyn could tell us the present number of hours.

PV202/161 had 1017 hrs of which 165hrs was with the RAF.
Tony K

Irish Tr9 Spitfires in some of their final colour scheme looked very nice, all silver and Black anti glare panels. 161 now at Duxford was finished in such a scheme up to the end of its service. It is now in quite a unique colour scheme and differs in some ways from when it entered Irish service.
Tony K

Apologies 25deg south. more than a typo, wrong magazine (it’s an age thing really) It should read Air International December 1975.
Should be standing in the corner as you read this.
Tony K

The lost and low on fuel Stirling arrived on 21 May and depareted two days later. Breakfast together? I wouldn’t think so. apparently one of the Stirling crew (Two RAF, one Canadian and one US 2nd Lt ) protested (you guess which one) at the freedom of the Germans at Gormanston and demanded that they be locked up. It is reported that one of the German NCOs mentioned in passing that they had planned to fly to Germanston what was their excuse for being there! With that they continued on their way to the beach for a swim.
Tony K