At Caboolture Air field in Queensland a new Warbird restoration project has emerged to restore a genuine WW11 veteran, USAAF C47A to airworthy condition in full service configuration as a flying memorial to the service of those who flew in WW11 in the type.
The aircraft is a Douglas Dakota C-47A-30-DK and was manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Corporation and construction was completed at the Oklahoma City plant in 1943 – it was serialed 14050/25495. There were two manufacturer’s serials for the aircraft due to serial conflicts with other production of aircraft, so a second had to be allocated. The aircraft carried the tail number 43-48234 in USAAF service and was assigned to the Pacific theatre of operations during the war with U. S. Transport Command.
The records from there are a little sketchy, but the aircraft is known to have served with the 5th Air Force in Australia and the Pacific including time in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Philippines. Some reports have the C47A serving with the 317th Troop Carrier Group (“The Jungle Skippers”), 39th Squadron coded as X6A, however this is not confirmed as yet and extensive enquiries are being conducted to confirm the exact details.
The C47A also served in Korea and the Pacific, post war and was eventually disposed of in 1947 when it was sold to the Australian Government and moved from Manila to Australia becoming VH-DMV, March 26, 1947 and registered to Department of Civil Aviation. Due to a registration policy change, VH-DMV was re-registered as VH-CAO on February 9, 1951. During service with the Commonwealth the aircraft was operated and serviced for D.C.A. by Trans Australia Airlines until March 10, 1962.
On March 10, 1962, VH-CAO was sold to Brain & Brown Air Freighters and re-registered as VH-BAB again on the same day, March 10, 1962. Work was then done to convert the aircraft to freighter configuration and it then operated as such until it was cancelled from the register in 1972 and overhauled.
On February 11, 1975 the C47 returned to the Australian civil register as VH-BAB and in November 1976 it was registered to Air Express Holdings Pty Ltd. In 1979 it was again withdrawn from use and sold to Chewing Gum Field Aircraft Museum, Tallebudgera, Queensland, being delivered to the Museum in July 21, 1979.
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- C47A at Wangaratta
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- C47A side view
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- “Jungle Skippers”
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- Being dismantled
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- C47A engines
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- C47A front view
Whilst at the Museum the C47A was returned as far as possible to an approximation of its WW11 color scheme and carried the markings ‘348234’ – coded ‘X6A’ and named ‘Jungle Skippers’. When the museum closed the aircraft was relocated to Drages Airworld, Wangaratta, Victoria but the color scheme was slightly altered as ‘X16A’ and renamed ‘Oklahoma Gal’. In January 2002 the Airworld Museum ceased operations and the aircraft was then sold by its owners Wangaratta Council at auction. The aircraft was finally acquired by Mike Spalding of Warbird Adventures Mareeba Qld for full restoration. The Dakota has spent the last years on outdoor display at Mareeba airport.
Recently the aircraft was acquired by Pacific Dakota Restorations, a not for profit organization founded by Dave Kingshott. Dave has extensive experience in Warbird aircraft restoration and is Manager & Chief Engineer at Complete Aircraft Care at Caboolture Qld. It is the intention of Pacific Dakota Restorations to return this classic C47 to its WW11 configuration and paint scheme and operate it as a flying memorial. The work will be carried out at Caboolture Queensland.
During the work commencing 8th December 2014, a team from Caboolture dismantled the aircraft and loaded it onto 3 trucks for the 2,000Km journey to Caboolture a feat of endurance in its own right!
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- Arrives at Caboolture
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- C-47A road convoy
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- Fitting thru gate
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- Getting a wash
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- Waiting to unload
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- Lifted off truck
The aircraft left Mareeba on the 14th of December 2014 and arrived at Caboolture at 9.00 am on the 17th of December 2014, following the nearly 2,000Km road trip – an epic in its own right. After the arrival at Caboolture Pacific Dakota Restorations will be restoring the aircraft back to airworthy condition. Once airworthy the aircraft will be flown around the country as a flying memorial to those who fought in WW2 and used extensively for education work, inspiring people to believe in their dreams and allow people to get close to a piece of history.
The aircraft will be based with the Caboolture Heritage Warplane Museum, allowing the public daily access to the aircraft throughout the restoration and its future operations.
If you would like more information please feel free to contact Dave Kingshott at Pacific Dakota Restorations 0448 013 659 or email at dave@completeaircraftcare.com.au
Should anyone be able to assist with any information on this fantastic aircraft we would encourage you to contact us at Warbirds Online or Dave Kingshott direct. I am sure you will agree that it is vital that we gather any and all historic information and photographs on Douglas Dakota C-47A-30-DK now before it is lost.
© John Parker 2014
Good cover
Thanks Noel. More to come.
kind regards
John
Mount Isa Scout Savanna Halun posing with “Oklahoma Gal” while waiting for a flying lesson at Mareeba.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xWGv3S65xagtCBpa8
Hi Peter
Thank you for sharing this interesting photo.
Kind regards
John
I was probably the last bloke to fly her (VH-BAB) on commercial ops 21/04/78 Essendon — King Island — Essendon, general freight over and live crays back. Flight total time was 2.45. I also did my first DC3 command flight in her and a photo of her in the original B&B colours of dark orange and white hangs on the wall in our family room. She didn’t have a wobble pump many 3’s had, but had electric booster pumps. The poor old girl is but a year younger than I and we have both seen better days. For those folks who aren’t au fait with 3’s (both C-47’s and 3’s) everything happened at 81 knots, “V” everything. They didn’t meet any of the segment of climb limitations so DCA labelled them “developmental aeroplanes” to get around that, and if you lost an engine just after takeoff you tended to become devout as you thought, “fly old girl, fly.” they burnt about 80 gallons and hour on two engines and 110 gallons an hour on one so one had to calculate critical points (equi time points) and points of no return and cart extra fuel for that eventuality. The flaps could be selected at any speed because the air load pressure on them overcame the hydraulic pressure and they wouldn’t extend, but after more than 3/4 flap was selected in the landing configuration the flaps locked into position, probably to prevent a flap asymmetry if one side decided to “blow back.” Another interesting thing about old DC3 captains is that when they die none of them go to hell and they get unlimited supplies of cold beer for free in Paradise, and they never ever forget about their days spent flying them.
Hi Botswanna
Thank you for the information – it fills in a gap in the history and we are pleased you had such a good time.
Kind regards
John
Botswana O’Hooligan,
here is hoping you get to see this. Iwas born and grew up in PNG with Dakota C47’s and DC3’s. used to fly in them 40 minutes to get to boarding school and back.
in 1976 I joined the Aussie Army, basic training in Wagga Wagga NSW then the Army Signal School at Watsonia Melburne. every night around 11.00pm I could hear the sound of a C47 engine flying over the Sigs School.
When VH-BAB came down to caboolture from marieba I wrote it’s complte history then realized the 11.00pm engine noise was from vh-bab 43-48234
David g
caboolture
I’m sure I can remember this aircraft being delivered to chewing gum air museum in Tallebudgera. Their was a local tv news piece done which showed it landing on the adjacent golf course. I could be wrong perhaps someone else can clarify!
Yep, she was there, so too a Bristol Freighter. Not many people know about Bristols for they were so ugly we flew them at night hauling freight, and we disguised ourselves just in case we came across a friend who would shun our company if they knew we flew them. The empty weight of a Bristol Mk 31 is a bit over a ton heavier than the gross weight of a 3.
I have photos of this particular C47 / DC3 Dakota whilst she was still at Mareeba airport. I then heard she was being sent off to be restored to airworthy condition, but have heard nothing more since then?? I last saw this plane when Mareeba had its last airshow quite some years ago now. The North Queensland Warbirds (the past owners of this plane) have somewhat wrapped up, and are now just a restoration facility for warbirds and maintenance? At the time of the airshows, “Jungle Gal” used to have her engines fired up, for the benefit of the crowds, but that was about the extent of the display?? Is she indeed intact, and is she being restored to airworthiness, as I would dearly love to see her again, in a better condition than she was @ Mareeba?
Hi Gary
Sadly the airworthy restoration was not completed at Caboolture Qld although a lot of work was done to restore her to flight. Recently the Dakota was acquired by HARS and moved to Parkes NSW where where she is in the process of being restored and repainted to static display condition in her original colour scheme.
Kind regards
John
I painted the OK Gal on a flight sim aircraft and usually, military C-47s have de-icing boots, but not on 348234? When Manfred created the model the team was in contact with Pacific Dakota Restoration some time ago. Anyways started looking at my old PSD files and thought I would finish the paint job.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52733068247_60a450fc09_o.jpg
TeD,
I do Computer Drafting ACAD as a hobby now I am medically retired from working.
I have drawn OK Gal full life size in colour and it prints out on 17 sheets of A4 paper.
had a computer change and lost the files, but can redraw it again any size for you if you would like a free copy.
David g.
caboolture
I remember when Dave who helped Manfred & Team C-47 model for MS Flight sim years ago and being part of the M & T crew wanted all details of OK Gal. I knew Dave wanted to fly OK Gal at the big Normandy C-47 flyovers.
Anyways I dig up an old psd file of OK Gal and layered it onto the model.
I started working on the psd file once again to complete the project.
Same…
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52720464821_edb98aebed_o.jpg