Danny::-
By the way, did you have these net curtains/hammocks (?) in your Hastings and C-130s ? Are there no lengths to which the RAF will not go to pamper the pax ? In my day you had your shallow metal bowl to sit in in the Daks, and that's your lot. Kip ? - what's the matter with the floor ? (if you were lucky, you could grab a mailbag or two).
Net curtains? Net curtains? We were rufty tufty tactical Medium Range Transporters (MRT) I'll have you know. I should make your enquiries of the "Strategic" transporters. No doubt one of their many role changes included the items in question.
On the Hastings we could role from trooping (50 rearward facing seats) to casevac (32 stretchers, 28 sitting, 3 nurses, 1 doctor. [sounds like a song we know, doesn't it boys and girls?]) to Para (30 troops, 2 despatchers on folding "bench" seats along the cabin sides with staggered exit doors on either side) to freight/supply dropping from the stripped cabin (usually dropped from "H" boards manually lifted at the port para door). In the latter case after all supplies (including 40 gallon fuel drums) had been dropped the bare floor afforded a functional rest area for the strapping Air Despatch Regiment guys exhausted from continually working the loads down to the door against the tight turns required in narrow jungle valleys. All in all a similar setup to your Daks, Danny. Indeed when the cousins enquired "What the hell sort of airplane is that?" it was usually explained as a "4 engined Gooney Bird".
As to the Herc, it was/is even more rufty tufty. The red canvas para seating (down the sides and if required back to back down the centre) is for all pax whether they be landing with us or not. With the thunderous racket from 4 Allisons right outside the cabin, 12-14 hour trooping flights were no picnic for the pax. Happily we were able to let them come up front in small groups for some blessed relief.
You'll have to ask a Bev man re your hammock/nets. My guess would be that they afforded some fore/aft restraint of para equipment that were to be carried/dropped by those jumping.
I could of course offer an alternative theory, that given the little or non-existent ground speed, when heading into the Mistral up the Rhone Valley, they afforded the opportunity for a spot of fishing. It is only a theory though.....
