Correct. Ex-32 Sqn crew.

Me, DXB in the middle of the night on the way back to Bots - bored :( EK 1 hr late but champers OK.

We looked after XS637 at Northolt from late 1975 prior to which it was the hack for C in C AFNORTH and based in Oslo. It wasn't kitted out quite as fancy as the CC2s XS791, XS792 and XS794, and had a stretcher conversion kit that could turn it into an air ambulance in an hour or so.

In 32 squadron service it was often used to ferry fresh fish and kippers from Benbecula and tomatoes from Guernsey. It wasn't much use for proper VIP transport.

US State Department is still flying DC-3s...

10 Ass-Kicking Warplanes You’ve Never Heard Of

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/wp-c...enciotti_0.jpg

Diplomatic Air Force

Special Operations Command isn't the only organization that requires an anonymous, dependable transport for flying in and out of war zones. The U.S. State Department operates 70-year-old Douglas DC-3 cargo planes in support of its far-flung diplomatic outposts in such places as Libya and Iraq.

Upgraded with new engines, the World War II-era DC-3s still aren't very fast -- 150 miles per hour or so -- but they can take off and land pretty much anywhere. A DC-3 was on call to support Christoper Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, in the months before he was killed in a September terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

The ancient but effective transports are part of the little-known Department of State Air Wing, which possesses 230 aircraft and, according to aviation journalist David Cenciotti, performs missions including "reconnaissance and surveillance operations, command and control for counter-narcotics operations, interdiction operations, logistical support, medical evacuation [and] personnel and cargo movement by air."

That DC3 brings back memories of seeing it in an interesting airport in a fun part of the world. I've got some cracking photos of it somewhere.

Its an original 1940s vintage aircraft, albeit heavily upgraded since then!

Wow. Interesting that HS Andover XS 637 ended up in Norway.
I claimed that one for myself.
With the skipper Jock Thomson and nav Gary Barber, I picked up that aircraft from the makers at Woodford on 14th March 1967 and then flew it to Seletar, Singapore arriving 29th March to reform no 52 squadron.
route - Abingdon, Istres, Luqa, Benina, Akrotiri, Baghdad, Muharraq, Masirah, Bombay, Calcutta, Bangkok, Seletar.
Apart from the food poisoning (Bombay) it was a great experience.

Cosford are correct with KN645. According to Putnam's Aircraft of the Royal Air Force it was the RAF's last Dakota, based at Oslo, and was retired on 1 April 1970.

http://www.abpic.co.uk/images/images/1401029M.jpg

A bit of useless information but the entrance to the hangar was too low for the tail to go under. Some bright spark came up with the idea of a ramp for the nose wheel inside the hangar just at the point where the tail was about to go in which tipped the tail down and popped it back up when inside :ok:

Exascot:

Was it a moveable ramp, as it would no doubt have had the same problem exiting the hangar?

And can you imagine trying to get the authority to do something like that nowadays?

MtheM I'm can't be sure but I think it was movable. Had to put one of our 32 Sqn Andovers in there once to prevent it getting buried in snow. :eek:

John Major's King Air
 

Was and is there not a King Air used by the John Major HMG Commonwealth Office, and it was seen around my neck of the woods - Cambs since he was local MEP. Some folks say just after the airfield proportionate of RAF Alconbury was handed back to MoD and then into the commercial sector, that around 95/96 said King Air was seen in the actual airfield (prob to serve JM)

Though in one Air Forces Monthly published in 2009, they showed a pic of a white King Air belonging to the Commonwealth Office returning to UK to undergo maintenance with DO Systems.

W.R.T Andover, I had the pleasure at RAF Church Fenton on CCF camp, to meet the crew who flew in from Gatow back in April 1991. I was doing work experience in the Met Office on camp....nice bunch of guys, but think their unit was at Wildenwrath?

Cheers

I once hopped a lift from Gutersloh back to the UK aboard the Andover - and a very nice experience it was too!

On the subject of makeshift ramps, the MI-17 has the similar issue with the battery box on the bottom of the tail boom, which gets in the way if you're trying to fork cargo into it's back end (probably a better way of phrasing that) hence most LZ's in Afghanistan have a hole 8" deep for the nose wheel to run into.

ZK457

UK Serials

Used in Iraq then Afghanistan. Now returned to the civil register

M the M, If the ac were pushed in and pulled out, or vise versa, the ramp would not have to move!

When the Germans got the Tornado GR1 they had the same problem with their Gen 1 Hardened Aircraft Shelters (HAS). They used the same solution and it worked very well. Even in the modern era, sometimes simple solution can be utilised. The biggest problem is finding someone with the B**ls to sign ot off!

Dominator My only reason to think it was movable is because it wasn't a permanent bay for this aircraft.

Last Dakota/DC3 - I recall a multi starred retirement from Brampton in about 1987 or 1988 - the C in C (Sir john Sutton?), AOA and AN Other who all flew in a DC3 from Boscombe, so there must still have been one then. The Dining Out Night was marked by each of us having a little polystyrene Tucano to fly!

Interesting link for the 10 A$$ Kicking Warplanes on Oracs post :

Saw this over my head often around here on approach to EGUN :)

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ps3cbe1e7d.jpg

Cheers

Ooer I'm liking that. I wants one.

That would be ZA947, now with the BBMF.

RAF BBMF - Dakota ZA947

So where do the aircrew for the Foreign Office and other "funnies" come from?

DO Systems supplied the King Air I beleive.