N51V — Douglas DC3C Data

This aircraft was built as C-47A 43-15509 and delivered to USAAF on 4/4/44, and thereupon was assigned to the U.S. 9th Air Force in the European Theater on 5/28/44. After WWII, the aircraft returned to the USA on 9/24/45 and the following month went to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation for disposal. It was then sold to Canadair Limited in Montreal, but on 12/10/45 it was bought by Swedish Air Lines. On 8/5/46 the plane was registered as SE-BBH and named “Vraken.” August 1, 1948 found the plane with Scandinavian Airlines System, being named “Helge Viking,” and later “Hjalmar Viking.” It was sold on 11/9/51, and on 8/17/53 it was acquired by Air Carrier Service Co and registered as N9985F. Before the year was out the plane was with Piedmont Aviation Corporation, registered as N51V, and named “Piedmont Yadkin Valley.” On 4/30/62 it was bought by Charlotte Aircraft Corporation and the following week was sold to the Spanish Air Force as T3-29, serving with Escudrone 911, bearing fuselage codes “911-9,” 911-09,” and “901-9” - the last one with Escudrone 901. WFU on 1/26/77. On 4/30/80 the plane was registered G-BHUB with Aces High Ltd at Duxford, Cambridgeshire. In 1981 it carried the livery of Ruskin Air Services and registration G-AGIV while in the film “Airline.” It was then acquired by the Imperial War Museum and displayed in USAAF wartime livery with tail serial 315509. (information from Arthur Pearcy’s 1988 “Douglas DC-3 Survivors”)