Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/11/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 11:47 PM 11/11/2006, G Hopkinson wrote: >Douglas, up until the 80's/90's the Royal >Australian Air Force still operated several "Daks" at our Aircraft Research >and >development Unit (ARDU) where I worked. I have >flown as a passenger many thousands of >kilometres in these aircraft over quite a >period. At least one of these airframes participated in the Berlin airlift. >http://www.adf-serials.com/gallery/albums.php?set_albumListPage=14 Hoppy Who operated it during the Berlin Airlift? This WAS a multi-national effort but I had not realized that the RAAF played a part in it. The USAAF pretty much discouraged the use of the C-47/Dakota/R4D/DC-3 in the Airlift as the resources required to push a C-47 to Berlin and back was about 80% as large as that required for a C-54, which carried almost three times the cargo. Thus, the USAF pretty much insisted on all flights being on C-54's but some C-47's might have gotten through. Whenever someone starts spinning a story, GET THE DETAILS. After all, there are truly "a million stories in the naked city", and every one has some piece of truth in it. (If someone tells me that the RAAF operated flights of Dakotas into Templehoff and Gatow during the Airlift, I will be surprised to learn this, but hardly astonished, as I learn new things every day on every imaginable topic (other than digital photography, which just becomes increasingly beyond my grasp, I fear.) Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!