VH-MAB
de Havilland D.H.104
Dove 5
(c/n 04119)
This Dove was purchased by Mandated Airlines in 1950 from
East African Airways where it
flew as VP-KDG.
The rare photos of it in Mandated titling (above and below) are from
the
Robert Blaikie
collection and were taken at Kaiapit, PNG in 1951/52. The
aircraft was built
in 1948. In 1955
it was acquired by
Airlines (WA) Ltd of Perth, in whose livery it is seen in
the shot at the foot
of the page. AWA soon re-registered it into their
series as
VH-AWF.
However, after a very short
tenure it was sold to
MacRobertson Miller Aviation and
re-regis-
tered VH-MMP. Its next owner (1959) was a
company named Air Charter and they
regis-
tered it as VH-RAJ. In 1962 it
was re-registered VH-TLU and
a year later as VH-RCI with
South
Australia Air Taxi. 1965 saw it with City Center Air Taxi, now
as VH-CTS who
(mercifully for the bloke
in DCA assigning the registrations) wrote it off in
an accident at
Lovely Banks Field,
Geelong on 17 Nov 1968. It wound up in an air museum in
Mildura.