Aer Lingus has welcomed a historic DC-3 airliner painted in retro colours to operate in public displays and reenactments over the coming few years.
The aircraft is ZS-NTE (cn 11926), which was previously operated by Springbok Classic Air in South Africa, but has recently been based with its owners in Zweibrucken, Germany.
After being painted in the green Aer Lingus colours, the aircraft had the authentic registration EI-ACD and name “St. Gall” added, which represents one of the actual DC-3s to fly for Aer Lingus, which operated the type between 1940 and 1964.
The first event the Aer Lingus DC-3 took part in was a celebration of Irish Aviation History at Dublin Airport on 20 July, followed by the Bray Air Display on 23rd July.
Future work will include taking part in the 70th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift in 2018, and the “Daks Over Normandy” event scheduled for June 2019, as well as various air shows.
It is fitting, given that this particular aircraft is a veteran of World War II, having flown for both the US Air Force and Royal Air Force.
The project to bring this DC-3 to Ireland has been initiated by Irish Historic Flight Foundation IHFF and board member Hugh Flynn.
Eamonn Brennan, Chief Executive of the Irish Aviation Authority, added: “We are delighted to see this wonderful aircraft in all its glory.
“Aviation is a hugely important economic driver for our country and we see these air shows are a great way of raising the profile of our deep aviation heritage and to generate an interest in our industry.”
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