United Arab Republic branch of the Phillips Petroleum Co.

Operating for the Radio Calibration Unit.

A last minute but very welcome surprise attendee to Northolt Nightshoot #31. Many thanks to the crew for taking the time to run it as well.

Delivered to the USAAF as 43-30728 in 1943. To the Turkish Air Force as 43-6052 in 1948, later 6052 and YŞL-52 with the Turkish Air Force Academy. Preserved at the museum by 1985.

This aircraft was later re-manufactured as Basler BT-67 c/n 63 and in 2014 was re-flown as C-FKGL and now flies as such for North Star Air Ltd. out of Thunder Bay, ONT.

This aircraft is now preserved at the Texas Air and Space Museum, located at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport in Amarillo, TX.

This C-47 does not have any Dutch service history, in fact being a USAAF machine that was sold to the R Norwegian AF in 1950 and transferred to the R Danish AF in 1956, latterly serialled K-688. On moving to the Militaire Luchtvaart Museum in the early 1980s, it was painted in a smart camouflage scheme with white top to represent R Netherlands AF C-47 X-05. In 2012 it was repainted as seen here, strangely with a serial that was allocated to Indonesian AF C-47 c/n 13344 from 1950. Perhaps that aircraft flew in these marks with the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army AF previously.

Painted to represent a WW2 Soviet Li-2, this was actually OK-GAH delivered to CSA in 1952 and then transferred to the Czech AF in 1957 as 3002

Built as DC-3A NC33649 for United it was taken up by the USAAF and became one of only 2 C-52Bs. In 1944 it passed to civil use as NC33327 first with Northwest then Mid-Continent, Braniff and Trans Texas and a number of smaller outfits. In 1974 it was acquired by Provincetown-Boston A/L and later leased to Eastern Express before withdrawn from use in 1988 and sold to an owner at Fremont. In 2014, after 2 decades stored at Fremont it was was sold, made airworthy and flown to Thomaston, GA., where it remained until May 2017 when it was flown to a new base at Cape Cod Airfield, Marstons Mills, MA.

The aircraft had been lapsing into dereliction at this location for approximately 20 years. By 2015 it had been moved into a hangar and a group called Saving LuLu Belle Inc had been formed with the intent of restoring it to airworthiness. Some progress was made and in October 2016 at least one of the engines was run, but the project seems to have stalled at the end of 2017 and the last update to the group's Facebook page was in February 2020.

1944: TOS USAAF as C-47A 43-16041. By 4/51: Limestone AFB, ME (later Loring). UNK: unknown owner with c/r N387T. By 1987: Basler Turbo Conversions, Oshkosh, WI. Ca.1991: Converted to BT-67 turbo-prop. By 1992: TOS. Bolivian Air Force with s/n TAM-38. By 9/97: Fuselage noted at Santa Cruz/la Trompillo, Bolivia.

Photo by Steve Kraus.

The Dukla museum in Svidnik, Slovakia is a great museum to learn about the battle of the Dukla pass that took place in September and October 1944. This Russian built Dakota, or Lisunov Li-2T, has been preserved here for years, although it moved closer to the main museum building recently. Also, it was seen without its rudder and thus code 50 white, which used to be painted on it.

In the tail you will find a boxer in the US Flag colours. On the rudder a woman is painted holding a globe and the text surrounding that is saying "Semper Ubi Sub Ubi" which means something in the line of "always wear underwear". The name mentioned in orange is Mary Green. After some research I came up with the following: Owner at that time was registered as Victoria Forest and Scout LLC, San Fransisco, CA and the CEO was Steven L. Swig and the name of his wife was Mary Green. The aircraft had an extended nose, which apparently contained a weather radar. The normal nose was re-installed later