Battle of the Tails 1 #8: Douglas C-54/DC-4 12082012

The tail of Douglas C-54A-5-DO c/n 4732 as displayed in the outdoor exhibition of the Aviodrome museum at Lelystad airport in The Netherlands (EHLE) in the 1940s livery of the Netherlands Government Air Transport (NGAT) with registration NL-316. As only governments could obtain landing rights after WWII, the Dutch government decided to form the state airline NGAT with personnel of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Seventeen Douglas C-54s, the military version of the Douglas DC-4, were obtained for the service. Only on 18 August 1948 the aircraft were formally handed over to KLM. The C-54 exhibited at the Aviodrome actually never flew with the NGAT. After service with the USAF the aircraft served with air forces and airlines all over the world. It finally went to the Netherlands in 1997 and was briefly on the Dutch register as PH-DDY before it was painted to resemble N-316. The real N-316 had c/n 10312 and was later reregistered PH-TCD for service with KLM. On 22 January 1948 it was struck off the Dutch register and went to France and later to Algeria, where it was broken up in August 1969. The photo was taken on 12 August 2012.

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