Red Dakota with Radome
 

This plane overflew Leeds/Bradford Airport at about 14.30 hours today. Anyone any information, please

Regards

Mike

Air Atlantique G-ANAF

Is that the one with a turbine driven APU mounted on the starboard side of the fuselage? That aircraft was being used for a Thales contract, as I remember.

The reg (NAF) certainly discribes the colour scheme-yuk

Yeah! That's the one.

What would it be doing? Is it still a working aircraft?

Yeah, But sadly no Pax.

(I was down in Otley last week at the 'Carbooit')

Some good Antiques - Inc 'Me' Lol!!

Regards.

Its been based at Teesside for two weeks testing some new kit on the local military ranges, race tracking for hours on Thursday.

hmmm ...

any one noticed that 2/3 of the (rare) wheel spat is sawn off !

Looks like its just come from a halloween party.

obviously painted to be easily identifiable.

any one noticed that 2/3 of the (rare) wheel spat is sawn off !

Standard UK gear doors, 377! You might be thinking of the US maximizer kit.

That would be US or French maximiser kit. Stevef is spot on. Gear down, one engine out, you are better off with no doors. Gear up, engine out, you are better off WITH the doors. Used to have to use separate performance graphs for each configuration, even with both engines operating, for take-off distance on limiting runways, and for single-engine climb rates "in the event of ". Difference was in all honesty so small that we (Intra) dispensed with the doors at the first sign of degradation in service.

stevef

thinking about these .... for me standard, though rare, wheel spats don´t know what the UK did with their dc3s, something typically idiosyncratic (i.e. cross grain) no doubt. Most 3s have nada.

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviatio.../2/0694238.jpg

There's a name I well remember! I worked for Intra maintenance at Exeter prior to them being taken over by Fields (1979?). They started me on a long Dak career. I used to have several photos of the Intra fleet but they've disappeared after heaven-knows how many moves.
Those gear doors made the Dakota a Mk IV if I'm not mistaken. They used to wobble all over the place and once the bungee cords got oil on them, they were useless. O/b doors were usually burnt by exhaust flames as well.

377 - good picture! Some UK registered Daks had doors, some didn't. As noted above, installation changed the aircraft mark. They were designed at Castle Donnington by Field Aircraft Services if I remember rightly.