Model Railway Forum

Cracking aircraft. I remember watching the Air Atlantique Dakotas at almost every airshow I went to in the 80's and early 90's

There are some machines that just 'look right' and the Dakota is one of them. Amazing that there are still so many flying after all these years.

When I was making the backscene for my layout I reduced a photo of a Dakota to a small size and stuck it onto the sky paper. Hardly noticeable at first glance, but I know it's there!

About 1400 survive and possibly 600ish are airworthy.

I've seen the Dakota that's part of the RAF memorial Flight stationary on the ground (where else could it be stationary?) and it is incredibly 'nose-up' . That's to say, it's not at all horizontal as it sits on its wheels. Climbing into the cockpit must be like going up Everest.

It's certainly a beautiful plane.

Thanks for you tube link watched the landings and the mass take off videos posted.
Watch some of the coverage on BBC news, wished they had shown more of the mass parachute jump over France.
Did anyone watch the Guy Martin D Day Landing program, pity the Dakota they were rebuilding was not completed in time.

I loved the fact that PM May was interrupted by the Dakota and Spitfire fly past. I assume it was miss timing by the BoB flight. Once a Prime Minister'd luck goes everything goes wrong.

My first commercial flight was from Newcastle to Hannover in a Dakota operated I believe by DanAir in 1960. The cabin was lined with what appeared to be hardboard and I was admittedly praying when we hit severe turbulence over the Dutch Coast.