In Australian Service, the DC-3

Part Twenty-Three in a Series Examining the Airliners That Established Civil Aviation in Australia

The Douglas DC-3 reigns supreme as the king of transport aircraft to have entered Australian airline service. No other aircraft can approach its record for length of continuous operation, number of aircraft involved, breadth and depth of service and overall versatility in both peacetime and wartime use. Although, as is well known, the DC-3 has recently celebrated its 50th birthday, its Australian involvement is somewhat less than that at ‘just’ 48 years.

In terms of numbers to have flown in Australia, the total is rather impressive, running to several hundred individual aircraft. On the civil side well over 200 different registrations have been used although some aircraft were re-registered several times making the number of actual aircraft involved less than the total number of registrations. In addition, 128 civil and military versions joined the RAAF and a large number were operated by US forces in Australia as part of the Allied Directorate of Air Transport (ADAT). Many of the RAAF and ADAT aircraft were later operated by civilian organisations after the war.

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