VR-HDB  Douglas DC-3                                        (c/n  4423)

                              

                                   VR-HDB was Cathay Pacific's first aircraft.  It was affectionately known as 'Betsy'.   An early
                                   C-47-DL it was built as the USAAF's 41-18385.              Civilianized after WW II it became
                                   NC58093, and was acquired by Roy Farrell who flew it from Georgia back to the Far Est
                                   wherein he began flying ad hoc flights from Shanghai to Sydney carrying both freight and the
                                   odd passenger.  Reregistered in Hong Kong as VR-HDB in September 1946 when Cathay
                                   Pacific was formed, it flew for the line until sold in August 1955 to Mandated Airlines as
                                   VH-MAL in Lae, New Guinea   (I logged seeing it a hangar being refurbished at Essendon,
                                   Melbourne in 1956).    After being zbsorbed by Ansett in 1961 it flew until 1983 when the
                                  old bird was painted back in to its original Cathay Pacific livery, restored with the rego
                                   VH-HDB and today is preserved at the Kowloon  Museum of Science & Technology.
                                   Photo from Cathay Pacific in 1948.