"Boogie Baby"
The World War II Airborne Demonstration Team is very lucky to own a
WWII era C-47 Dakota for training and demonstration purposes.
‘Boogie Baby’ a 1942 Oklahoma built C-47A-DK is currently owned by
the Team and is operated by Regional Air.
‘Boogie Baby’ was assembled in 1942 at the Douglas Plant in Tinker,
Oklahoma and was one of some 5354 C-47 Dakota III aircraft that were
built at the plant during the war and was given the manufacturers
serial number 12060. She was delivered and registered with the
U.S.A.A.F. as aircraft 42-92277 before being diverted in November
1943 under the Lend-Lease program to the Royal Air Force in
Montreal, Canada where it was allocated the RAF registration FL633
on 11th January 1944.
On 31st January 1944, ‘Boogie Baby was transferred to the command of
512 Squadron RAF and based at RAF Hendon just outside London,
England. She was transferred, with a nucleus of crewmembers from 512
Squadron, to the newly formed 575 Squadron on 14th February 1944,
who were also based at RAF Hendon. On 14th February 1944, both 512
and 575 Squadrons were both moved from RAF Hendon to RAF Broadwell,
England for them to continue their training and preparations for the
upcoming invasion of Normandy. Boogie Baby went with them, remaining
there until 10th April 1944 when she was transferred to Air Command
South East Asia and based in India. Here she saw action delivering
valuable supplies to the troops fighting in the jungles of Burma
and, as you will see, made many relief deliveries to Imphal and the
Chindits. She remained in operation here until June 1944 when she
was transferred to Middle East Command, based in Cairo, Egypt. From
here, ‘Boogie Baby’ was moved to Corsica, and Italy before
returning to the Middle East and Cairo at the end of August 1944,
where she remained in service until the end of WWII. In late 1945,
she was returned to the UK with 1382 Transport Support Conservation
Unit and based at Wymeswold, England until the termination of her
military service.
At the end of the war, ‘Boogie Baby’ was reregistered as a civilian
aircraft TC-Yol and continued its cargo duties in 1946 with Turkish
Airlines before again being reregistered as CS-TAI with Universal
Air Leasing of Boavista and operated by Air Acores in 1969. In 1975
she was again in military service registered as 4XFNT/Serial No. 029
with the Israel Air Force, where she remained until being sold to
Global Aircrafts and regaining a civilian registration of N751 in
1999. She was shipped back to the USA in 1999 via Malta, where she
was acquired by the Oklahoma Airborne Museum in 2000 and based at
Lawton, Oklahoma, before moving to Frederick Army Airfield,
Frederick, Oklahoma in 2005.
Click Here to see a more detailed history of the aircraft and the
crews who operated it during WWII.
View from the cockpit
