Air Enthusiast 1999-03
J.Serrano - Fifty years of DC service
T.3-52 ‘744-52’ from Matacan under maintenance at Getafe on August 18, 1976.
T.3-52 ‘461-24’ at Villa Cisneros, Spanish Sahara, in the early 1970s, exemplifying the early coding system with the Gando-based 461 Squadron.
The two civil registered ‘flight checkers’ (EC-ANV and EC-ARV) with fading high-visibility panels at Cuatro Vientos, August 1978.
Many of the former EdA C-47s were purchased by British dealers and collectors for onward sale. The former T.3-45 with roughly painted-out roundels and the registration G-BFPV with T.3-65 (G-BFPT) behind at Blackbushe, Hampshire, August 1978.
Maestranza Aerea de Madrid, Cuatro Vientos, was the C-47 ‘boneyard’. T.3-34 ‘721-7’ awaiting its fate August 1978.
C-47 T.3.-43 ‘77-73’ was one of the first to join the Jerez de la Frontera-based Escuela de Polimotores in 1962. Note the owl badge under the cockpit and the 'Pedros' in the background.
T3-2 ended its life serving with the High Staff Group’s 911 Squadron at Getafe. Cuatro Vientos, August 1978.
No.744 Squadron was the companion unit of 745 Squadron, within the Multi-Engined School at Matacan during the C-47 epoch. T.3-64 ‘744-64’ at Matacan, August 1974.
Beyond use with 745 Squadron, T.3-42 joined 911 Squadron, illustrating the code change involved. Getafe, August 1974.
The Air Academy’s T.3-12 ‘792-6’ awaits overhaul at the Maestranza Aerea de Madrid, Cuatro Vientos, August 1976.
In spite of the ‘461-46’ code denoting 461 Squadron, T.3-46 was flown by 721 Squadron prior to being stored at Maestranza Aerea de Madrid, Cuatro Vientos, August 1976.
T.3-31 served with 461 Squadron, initially coded ‘461-27’ and then ‘461-31’, from October 1970 to December 1974.
T.3-42 serving 745 Squadron at Matacan as ‘745-42’ in August 1974.
Flying training demands were such that 745 Squadron could not find the time to put their code on T.3-67 before the aircraft was finally withdrawn. Cuatro Vientos, August 1976.
C-54 T.4-14 wore its second 352 Squadron code, ‘352-14’ from April 1973 until retirement.
T.4-10 ‘911-10’, the second of the High Staff Group’s C-54s, at Getafe August 1976.
Initial code sported by T.4-9 while serving with 353 Squadron was '353-23'. This gave way to '352-09' beyond April 1973.
C-54 T.4-14 with its earliest 352 Squadron code, ‘352-15’. CASA Azor behind.
T.4-16 ‘352-16’ in company with fellow C-54s and Grumman HU-16s awaiting scrapping at the Maestranza Aerea de Sevilla, September 1977.
One of the two ‘sacred cows’ from 911 Squadron, T.4-5 ‘911-05’ at Getafe, August 1976.
View of the tail of T.15-1 showing the former Iberia red cheatline.
DC-8 T.15-1 wearing the definitive colour scheme for the type at Barajas, September 1986.
DC-2 EC-AAC ‘Vara de Rey’, formerly 42-1, in pre-Iberia markings at Madrid’s Barajas Airport in the immediate Spanish postwar period.