The second Battle of the noses on AirSpace can of course not be fought without a tribute to the winner of the first Battle: the Douglas DC-3, the favourite of fellow battler Flyvertosset. This is a special nose view of the former "Royal Dakota" Douglas DC-3C-S1C3G c/n 19434 (originally a C-47A-75-DL) PH-PBA after a ceremony at Schiphol Amsterdam airport in The Netherlands (EHAM) on 7 December 7 2010 during which the new color scheme and name of PH-PBA were unveiled. The retro KLM livery dates back to the 60's of the last century. At the time the color scheme was only used for the remaining Dakotas of KLM Aerocarto and KLM freight service. The aircraft was delivered to the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) in 1944 and came into action during the Normandy landings. In 1947 it went to The Netherlands as PH-PBA and was commissioned as government aircraft, to be used extensively by the late Prince Bernhard, husband of then Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. It was during this period the designation "Royal Dakota" was coined. In 1975 it was phased out and exhibited in the former Aviodome museum at Schiphol Amsterdam airport. After 21 years on exhibition it was restored to airworthiness by Air Atlantique in Coventry. Parts of DC-3 G-BVOL (c/n 9836) were used for the restoration of PH-PBA. Since then, PH-PBA is officially registered not as a C-47A, but as a DC-3. The aircraft was again refurbished and repainted in 2010 and revealed with its new livery during a ceremony at Schiphol airport on the day this photo was taken.
Related images in this EnoAeroPics media gallery:
Images of the second Battle of the noses
Images of the first Battle of the noses
More images of DC-3 PH-PBA
DC-3/C-47/Dakota/Skytrain images
Related images on AirSpace:
The Battle of the noses on Flyvertosset's gallery on AirSpace
The Battle of the noses on AirSpace
See the most recent EnoAeroPics images on Flightglobal/AirSpace here
See all EnoAeroPics images on Flightglobal/AirSpace here