ZK-AQP
Douglas DC-3CS1C3G
(c/n 16149/32897)
ZK-AQP was an ex
C-47B-30-DK built in 1945. It served with the RNZAF as NZ3538.
It was to have been
civilianized as ZK-AOG but, in the event, that registration was not
taken
up and it became
ZK-AQP instead. It was converted to freighter configuration in
Australia in
1947.
In 1965 it was withdrawn from NZNAC service and returned to the RNZAF
as a
paradropper.
Retiring from the military a second time in 1978, it was sold in
Singapore to
Island Associates of
Moroni, in the Comoros Republic as D6-CAF. It wasn't
actually ferried
from Auckland to Singapore
until 1 Feb 1981. It then went to the South African Air Force as
6858. It was
converted to prop-jet standard by Wonder Air sometime in the 1990s
(designated
a DC-3C-TP) and by 1997 it was on
the books of Dodson Aviation of Ottawa, Kansas, USA
as N146RD. This
old bird was last sighted at Olathe, Kansas in August 2000 and is
currently
up for sale..