Ray Jade,

Looking at the replies to my thread yesterday, there will be a few of us there tommorow. The flying starts at 4PM which if the forecast is correct, will provide the ideal lighting for photos. The best place to stand at Old Warden is anywhere on the airfield as it is magical from any angle. For the best photos, keep near to the control tower (depending on what photos you want).

Come and visit my Air Cadet stand if you can.

Missed your thread yesterday. Ta for the suggestion re tower. See you if I get let off the leash 😎

DC3 HB-IRA (46)

No caption. London 3rd May 1952.

According to http://www.8ung.at/dominguez/Htmls/srfleet_dc9.htm, this was a DC-3-216, c/n 1945 with a last known registration of N2815D. http://www.cnapg.org/dakota.htm has it also registered as N142D (confirmed by http://home.hccnet.nl/p.w.riool/dc01.html).

According to http://membres.lycos.fr/akerros/avions/dc34.html, this was one of two Fokker built aircraft delivered to Swiss Air in June 1937. http://www.luftfahrt.ch/news/29042004swissairdc3.html mentions this aircraft as the first to fly on the London route at that time.

The Google cache of http://www.dc3history.org/cns/cns/cn1494_1985a.htm gives a listing of the aircraft (which I’ll not try to separate out) as 1945 DC-3-216 Fokker D 08May37 – HB-IRA Swissair 10Jun37 – N2815D Fleetwings Inc31Mar55 – Ozark 25May55 – Rr N 1 41 D 195 7 – Fairchild-Hiller 06Oct66 – Avion Inc, Houston, TX 1966 – T J Holmes,La Grange,TX Dec73 – J.Torbert Chandler, AZ(1976)- Gulf Park Aviation, Ocean Springs MS(RIIOct78).

The census at http://www.oldprops.f9.co.uk/DC3%20USA%20Census.htm also has N141D as being at Gulf Park Aviation, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, so perhaps this aircraft still survives?

Ray
I think it is a plastic Spitfire.. There was def one there last year. Think it is listed in W&R. Love the Banbury run but unable to go this year as already promised to do Young Eagles at Ox. Had nice day for it though.
OAW

:rolleyes: Its just clicked that there was a thread on this a while back… started by yours truly.

Its a replica spitfire from BoB. Picture below from http://cloudancer100.tripod.com/id6.htm

BTW, I picked up this about the DC3 (more pics) at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/barry.clay1/id51.htm

“This very special Dakota is G-ANAF which is operated on behalf of Thales ( formerly Racal ) on electronic research,the aircraft makes regular trips of three hours across country testing out vital equipment for the company,various antennae arrangements have been noted.
This is a typical example of how a vintage aircraft is still a useful platform for unusually placed radomes,more modern machines feature nosewheels and would be hopeless for such tasks.”

BTBTW, as a vaguely tenuous link, a related page http://cloudancer100.tripod.com/id13.htm has some shots of the Hurricane modified with a thin wing at Coventry.

Wow! 655 looks magnificent! What does the writing on the side of the nose say?

The pregnant Dakota looks interesting – I wonder what it will give birth to?

655 certainly looked (and sounded 😮 ) the biz. Some places were not highly polished mausoleum finish but then she’s been outside for 20 years and has to work (not often enough!) for a living.

To my surprise my three-year old liked noise (when I was her age I cried at nasty noisy jets 😮 ).

Writing on the side – “Avro Vulcan XM655 1964 – 2004 Keeping 655 Alive”. Close up at http://www.xm655.com/index.html.

Dakota – note the home-made fin behind the tail wheel. About 2″ thick and with no hint of shaping. I guess its to improve handling with that boil on the belly.

Apparently, the DC3 is / was used for RADAR work; ground mapping I suppose.