Livery from the twin-engine transport aircraft in use by the Belgian Air Force.
Already during WWII several Belgian crews were operational in Dakota equipped RAF squadrons (N° 187 and 525 Squadrons at Membury). With the rebirth of the Belgian post war Military Aviation the creation of a transport wing was one of the first priorities and in 1946 the Belgian Government could easily obtain a number of surplus Dakota's through the American "Foreign Liquidation Commission". A large number of transports was needed in order to maintain an operational link with Belgian Congo and to equip locally based units. A first order of 18 ex-USAAF Dakota's was obtained between 1946 and 1947 and delivered at N° 366 Squadron/169 Wing at Evere. (Later N° 20 Squardon/15th Wing). With the addition of some 23 supplementary former RAF Dakota's a second squadron was activated (N° 367 squadron later N° 21 Squadron). Finally no less than 41 C-47B's were active with the Belgian Air Force. With the introduction of the much larger C-119 Flying Boxcar the number of active Dakota's quickly reduced until only a handful were operational with N° 21 Squadron. In 1976 the last of the "Daks" was retired.
The C-47B was a multi-purpose aircraft used for all missions, including flights to Africa. Mapping the Congolese territory was possible thanks to the C-47. After their replacement by the C-119, a few examples were kept for liaison, training or calibration flights. Some eight Dakotas were transferred to the Kamina base where they were used for paratrooper training. After the independence of Rwanda and Burundi in July 1962, the Dakotas returned to Belgium, with the exception of two of them which were ceded to Katanga. Once in our country, the planes were withdrawn from service. It was not until the summer of 1976 that the K-8/OT-CND was the last Dakota to be sold. This Dakota was shot down in the skies over Mozambique shortly afterwards.
History:
Douglas C-47B
Date In: Oct 1946
Date Out: Jun 1976
C/N 14311/25756
K-8 OT-CND
(Source: https://www.belgian-wings.be)
Installation :
- unzip the "microsoft-dc3-otcnd-k8-livery.zip" file
- put the folder "livery-dc3-otcnd-k8" in your community folder
Small update 10/03/2024: a few changes to some details of the fuselage