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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0342.PDF
344 FLIGHT 15 March 1957 After arrival by road from the R.A.M.C. Field Training School at Mytchett, Hants, the weatherbeaten fuselage of Dakota KN550 awaits its rehabilitation in the Ringway Airport, Manchester, hangar of Eagle Aircraft Services. CINDERELLA TRANSFORMATION A Dakota for Aden Airways—and its Unusual History ONE aeroplane in its life may play many parts, and this isespecially true of the Dakota, which in the past fifteenyears has developed a well-deserved reputation for ver- satility. Some of the chequered careers among that valiant bandof maids-of-all-work may be epitomized by the recent transforma- tion at Ringway and Blackbushe of a Dakota whose history canonly be described—forgivably, perhaps, since the pantomime season is only just over—as a Cinderella operation -with an equallyhappy ending. Tliis Dakota bears the registration G-AOJI and this week shewas flown from Eagle Aircraft Services, Ltd., at Blackbushe, to Aden, to join the fleet of Aden Airways, an associate of B.O.A.C.,who are now the Dakota's owners. It would be tempting fate to attempt a forecast of her future there, and one will not try; butit is merely recording history to trace the steps—albeit falteringly, for information is not complete—by which G-AOJI came to thishappy ending after having stood on the ground as a wingless fuselage for five-and-a-half years. In R.A.F. service this Dakota bore the serial number KN55O,and it may well be that many ex-Dakota crews both in and outside the R.A.F. have this number somewhere in their log-books. Itwas in May 1945 that KN55O came to this country from No. 45 Group in Canada. She languished at Kemble, Glos, until Septem-ber that year, when she was flown off to the Far East. The records indicate that in May 1946 she was in India; and in July thefollowing year she returned to this country and went to No. 12 M.U. at Kirkbride. There is a gap then in the Dakota's historyuntil March 1949, when she was delivered to Oakington. While based at that Cambridgeshire R.A.F. station, KN55O went onthe strength of No. 30 Squadron and was flown on the Berlin Airlift. Operation Plainfare, the R.A.F. part of the Berlin Airlift, cameto an end on September 23, 1949; and in that month KN55O was sent to No. 22 M.U. at Silloth—whether by road or by air therecords do not indicate. It is possible diat she stayed there inactive for the next ten months; for in June 1950 she was struck offR.A.F. charge and put in the spares category. A stage in reconstruction (right), showing how all electric wiring had to be renewed and hydraulic and de-icing supply lines checked; and (below) the "transformed" Dakota—wearing her Aden Airways livery and re-registered as G-AOJI—at Blackbushe Airport shortly before leaving for Aden and new duties as a civil airliner. This might have been the end of her story: a once hard- working Lease-Lend Dakota parked at an M.U. and being gradu- ally diminished by the need for spares for other Lease-Lend aircraft. But matters took an unusual turn before the end of that year. It happened that the Army Field Training School at Mytchett,near Farnborough, Hants, wanted a fuselage for the ground- training of young R.A.M.C. officers and N.C.O.s. They were tobe given demonstrations of loading equipment and casualties and an opportunity of familiarizing themselves with the fittings forthe carriage of stretchers. The fuselage which came to Mytchett on an R.A.F. Queen Mary—knocking down, one is told, severalwalls and fences in the narrow lanes surrounding the F.T.S.— was that of KN55O. Some mystery surrounds the whereabouts of the Dakota priorto her arrival (in dismembered form) at Mytchett. Colonel J. H. J. Crosse, O.B.E., who was Commandant of the F.T.S. at the time,says that—from hearsay—they understood that the Dakota "had recently crashed in Southern England and was a write-off." Thismay have been true; for if KN55O was flown to No. 22 M.U. as a serviceable aircraft, she might have done some flying either from there or at another unit to which she may have been sent during those nine months and, if so, might have had a mishap. Alter- natively, the fuselage which arrived at Mytchett may have been specially dismantled for the purpose; or might have been all that was left of KN55O after cannibalization for spares. Humiliating though this posting may have seemed for a once-serviceable air- craft, it was not, however, the end of things for KN550; though her Cinderella-like transformation was to be a long time—approxi- mately five-and-a-half years—in coming, thus giving it the right taste of refreshing unexpectedness. At Mytchett the aircraft was on free loan from the Air Ministry to the War Office for an indefinite period. She was painted white and the side of the fuselage lettered with the words "Field Training School R.A.M.C." Many courses of officers and N.C.O.s must have learned to load casualties through that ever-open door, and
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