Snapshot 9 showed Ekco Avionics Anson G-AGPG on a sunny afternoon at Luton Airport, probably in Spring 1968. The Anson shared the apron outside the Autair hangars with two C-47s, G-ATBE and G-APPO. The latter is painted in the colours of Fujairah Airlines, a company which possibly never operated (1).
G-APPO had a history which differed from many British-registered Dakotas: she had never served with the RAF and didn’t follow the Scottish Aviation conversion route to BEA Pionair operations. Instead, the Long Beach-built 43-15987, c/n 20453, was delivered to the USAAF on June 2nd 1944 and assigned to the USAAF Ninth Air Force in Europe, arriving on July 30th 1944.
Post-war, she appeared in the fleet of Denmark’s DDL as OY-DDO, ‘Odd Viking’ delivered to Copenhagen on May 31st 1946 (2). It is very likely that, prior to joining DDL, the C-47 had returned to North America and been civilianised by Canadair at the old Noorduyn factory in cartierville, Montreal (3).
(1) Fujairah became one of the seven Trucial States in 1952. It had ties to neighbouring Sharjah and Muscat and became part of the United Arab Emirates in 1971. Gulf Aviation had been formed in 1950 to replace RAF transport out of Sharjah and it linked key airports such as Doha, Dhahran, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Bahrain. Fujairah had a couple of airstrips, probably created by the RAF, at Masafi and Fujairah City. Although it bordered on Sharjah, the country might well have considered setting-up a national airline and Autair would certainly have been a relevant company to approach. However, the background is far from certain and many contemporary observers wrote-off G-APPO’s titles as being for a movie shoot.
(2) DC-1/ DC-2/ DC-3: The First Seventy Years by Jennifer Gradidge, published by Air Britain.
(3) Canadair were a major player in converting military C-47s to airliners. At the end of WW2, Douglas wanted to focus on 4-engine airliners and the C-47 production line was immediately shut-down. Canadair’s President, Ben Franklin, spotted the market and approached Donald W.Douglas himself with an offer to virtually buy everything from the Oklahoma City plant. Douglas told Franklin that he could buy anything which was located in two areas of the factory. Franklin promptly dispatched two guys to Oklahoma City to move anything that they thought was useful into those two zones! Parts were then bought at a flat rate of $200/ ton and tooling at $40/ ton. Apparently, some 600 rail wagons of C-47 parts and plant were shipped to Montreal to complement large numbers of war surplus USAAF C-47s being bought cheaply from the US War Assets Corporation and flown to Quebec by Don McVicar’s World Wide Aviation.
After a couple of years with DDL, the C-47 crossed to Ireland to join Aer Lingus as EI-AFB on 12th November 1948. Aer Lingus had re-opened post-war European services with Dakotas which, during the summer of 1947, they decided to supplement with a fleet of seven Vikings. The Vickers airliners didn’t fit well with Aer Lingus’ operation and they were sold the following year. Three further Dakotas were therefore leased as from May 1948 and, when they were returned in the autumn, the three C-47s EI-AFA/B and C were purchased from Scandinavia. EI-AFB was named St. Brendan until 1954 when the name passed to a Viscount and ‘AFB became St.Cillian. Towards the end of her Aer Lingus career, ‘AFB may even have become St.Jarlathe although, in January 1958, the C-47 was sent to Eagle Aviation at Blackbushe for overhaul.
Eagle had passed through their Dakota-operating phase by 1958 but continued with maintenance and sales functions. EI-AFB was promptly re-registered VR-TBT on behalf of the Tanzanian company Williamson Diamond Mines. Delivered on 25th January 1958, still wearing the basic Aer Lingus green scheme, ‘TBT joined fellow Dakota VR-TBI at Williamson’s Mwadui strip. The Dakotas were used to fly freight and passengers between the mine strip and Nairobi in Kenya. ‘TBI had been bought from Wenela in South Africa, where it had been ZS-DHX, and continued to be used for transporting mine labour. It had been purchased in 1953 and continued with Wiliamson’s for many years. VR-TBT, however, returned to the UK in August 1958 where it was, again, received by Eagle Aviation. This raises the question as to whether the short stay in Africa had been for the duration of a lease. Tanzanian sources, however, say that the Dakota was owned by Williamsons before being sold to Lloyds of London underwriters C.E.Heath & Company to whom it was registered as G-APPO on 22nd October 1958 (4).
(4) Williamson Mine details from www.mwadui.com, registration information from the CAA G-INFO site.
C.E.Heath may have acted as sales agents for VR-TBT, but the C-47 was still at Blackbushe during January 1959. By early April, ‘PO had moved-on to BKS Engineering at Southend-on-Sea. During the early fifties, BKS had added four Dakotas to their fleet directly from the RAF disposal site at Kirkbride, Cumbria. The airline’s engineering facility enabled civilianisation to be achieved efficiently and economically and BKS Dakotas carried charter freight and passengers throughout Europe, the Middle East and as far south as Johannesburg. During 1953, scheduled routes and IT flights were inaugurated and four Vickers Vikings were purchased. These complemented the five-strong Dakota fleet. BKS began to introduce ex-BEA Ambassadors, with three in service by May 1958. This led to the departure of four Dakotas and all of the Vikings by January 1959. Strangely, G-APPO was only added in 1959, perhaps in recognition that they had overdone their fleet sales. Also, freight operations were best suited to the Dakotas and some of the runways at BKS destinations were more appropriate for the Dakotas than the newer equipment. A further C-47 was added in May 1960.
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