Aircraft G-AMRA Data

This aircraft was built as C-47B 43-49474 and delivered to USAAF on 11/25/44, but was then diverted Lend-Lease to RAF as Dakota Mk.IV s/n KK151 with No. 45 Group at Dorval, Montreal, Canada. 3/3/45 it was assigned to No.300 Wing of No.238 Sqdn in Australia supporting the Pacific Fleet. Returned to U.K. April 1946, four months later going to No. 525 Sqdn at Membury, Wiltshire. On 3/25/49 it was assigned to RAF Oakington in support of the Berlin Airlift. Six months later it was placed in storage with No.12 Maintenance Unit. Sold and registered G-AMRA on 3/8/52. During 1953 it operated under U.K. government contracts taking troops to the Canal Zone in RAF livery with serial XE280. Later that year it was leased to Aden Oil Refining. On 6/1/60 it was registered to British United Airways after being modified to Dakota 6 standards. It changed hands numerous times over the years, and in 1978 was painted as “CCCP-7245” for a movie. During the 1980s the plane flew many charters and pleasure flights in the Channel Islands. (Info from Arthur Pearcy’s 1988 “Douglas DC-3 Survivors”)