VH-BZB Douglas
DC-3CS1C3G (c/n 9414)
VH-BZB was an ex
C-47A-25-DL which had seen service with the RAF as FD868. It was
civilianized in 1945 as G-AGHN and flew BOAC
services until it was sold to Ansett in 1950
who named it 'Ansertes', a name
previously carried by their Lockheed 10A VH-UZO.
It was
seconded to Butler Air Transport
in the late 1950s as seen in Barry Maclean's shot on the foot
of this page, taken at
Essendon. Soon after that (1958) it was sold to Thai Airways as
HS-TDF.
The DC-3 was
reputed
to be on display at the National
Science Museum in Bangkok wearing
Thai Air Force markings as late
the
mid-1990s but its
current status is not known. For the above
shot I had used
an orange filter which diffused the deep red markings. The
lower shot shows it after
repainting in
the style adopted after the Convairs were acquired.
Butler merely took out the
"Ansett" titles.