End of the line for the C-47TP in SAAF service

Although not officially announced (yet) the South African Air Force (SAAF) seemed to have decided to phase out the Douglas C-47TP Turbo Dakota from its inventory. Phasing out in this case is a bit of a euphemism as the last flights took place about two years ago. Since then only one or two Turbo Daks have been doing regular engine runs.

So after 81 years of service the old workhorse is no more. The last remaining Dakota unit was 35 Squadron from Ysterplaat (Cape Town). They have been flying C-47s since 1985 after the phasing out of the Avro Shackleton MR3. In 1994 they said goodbye to the classic piston engined C-47 leaving only the Turbo Dak operational.

Of the 37 C-47s that were converted to C-47TP only nine remained in the inventory the last couple of years and not all of them serviceable.

Over the past six years or so the South African defence organisation Armscor tried several times to find a maintenance partner but was unable to find one since the support in the world for these old machines in general is limited and for the Turbo Dak conversions in particular, support is even more hard to find.

The Turbo Dak was a conversion project that originated in South Africa and, apart from the choice of engine, is not identical to the Basler BT-67 solution.

Credit photo: Jaap Dijkstra (Scramble Archive)