Pic(k) of the week 24: 70 year Grand Old Lady - Air France DC-3

Whenever I can combine my two main passions, Aviation and Photography, I seem be in my best element...
The last two blogposts have been all about the Patrouille de France 60th anniversary airshow in Salon de Provence end of May.

After having come home with a fair amount of images from that event, I believe it is only appropriate to make one of them, my Pic(k) of the week.

Born on March 5th 1943 as a military C-47, this 70 year Grand Old Lady, was for me "the " aircraft that really stood out in the static display. It has been restored by the association "France DC-3" into a great condition. 

Online research showed an amazing aircraft history. Initially it flew active duty for the US Army Air Force during World War 2. After the war, it was then briefly transferred to the civil UK aircraft register where it participated in the Berlin Airlift (1948-1949). It remained on the civil register when it was bought by the French Air Force and was mainly used as a passenger aircraft. Eventually it ended up in the Central African Republic, before it came back to France in the early 1980's to fly cargo at night. 

It was in this role that I remember having seen the aircraft in Brussels, operating night cargo runs from and to Paris till 1987. 

Since then, the aircraft has had a large number of aircraft liveries, including a retro KLM one on the right and a retro Air France one on the left side. At the Salon de Provence Air-show however, it surprisingly showed only the Air France one.

Image details:

Nikon D800 with 70-200 2.8. VR2 Nikkor lens

ISO 400, f8, 135mm, 1/1000s

RAW development in Lightroom 4.4

Nik SilverEfex 2 for Black and White conversion

The Douglas DC-3 (military designation C-47) is one of my favourite vintage aircraft and more DC-3 images of mine can be found here.

As some people say, "the only thing a DC-3 can be replaced with, is another DC-3"

BJORN

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