ZA947 is a C-47 Dakota MK III which was taken on charge by the RAF BBMF in 1993 at RAF Coningsby. Probably intended purely as a training aircraft to convert pilots onto multi-engined 'tail-draggers' prior to training on the invaluable Lancaster PA474, as the only other multi-engined tail-dragger in the RAF now, it has however become a very poplar display aircraft in it's own right.

It features regularly in commemorative drops including celebrations of the famous Operation Market Garden in 1944, when RAF pilot Flt Lt David Lord DFC was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for making repeated efforts whilst under heavy enemy fire to drop much-need supplies to the beleaguered paratroopers and glider troops of the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem. In fact the first colour scheme in which ZA947 was painted after joining BBMF was that of Flt Lt Lord's aircraft YS-DM of 271 Sqn in which he 'won' his posthumous VC.

ZA947 was built as a C-47A Skytrain at the Douglas Aircraft Company factory at Long Beach California. ZA947 is a relatively modern RAF aircraft serial number; (falling between a batch of Puma helicopters and a Westland Lynx helicopter); as it was erroneously assigned the serial number KG661 of another aircraft which had in fact crashed and was written off. The aircraft operated as a Royal Canadian Air Force aeroplane serial number 661- which is why it was later assigned the serial KG661- during World War 2, and was purchased by the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough in 1969, prior to joining the BBMF in 1993.

Category: Historic Aircraft → Battle of Britain Memorial Flight