RAF VIP Dakotas - technicalities

**Franek Grabowski** · 5th March 2021, 19:19

Peter
Apparently you was the Princess and the Dak was the pea! I do not think it was worse than C-130, which is making deaf

**Franek Grabowski** · 8th March 2021, 19:06

I have found such a nice picture of Dakota interior. I guess it is the type of arrangement, I am looking for. I do not know if it was typical one, and where seats were sourced from.

**David Duxbury** · 8th March 2021, 20:54

Franek, that is a standard (factory installed) interior, with "trooping" seats in "upright" configuration; these seats could be folded down so that they took up very little space, and the whole interior could then be used for freight. A VIP aircraft would look completely different to this arrangement. Another detail of interest are the "grommets and plugs" fitted in the "passenger" windows along the sides. These were intended to give the "passengers" (normally they would be members of the armed services) a chance to defend themselves against enemy fighters should they be so unlucky as to encounter them in flight. All the "passengers" had to do was to remove the "plug" from the grommet (the plug was still attached to the grommet by a cord, so it could be quickly re-installed when emergency was over), and then thrust their rifle through the hole and attempt to shoot at any enemy aircraft within sight. Generally transport aircraft were NOT flown in areas infested with enemy aircraft, so instances of such "aerial duels" were probably very rare, which was fortunate for the occupants of transport aircraft. I doubt that any soldier was ever credited with shooting down an enemy aircraft, but such a shoot-down was theoretically possible, but highly unlikely - everything would be favour of the attacking fighter, who coul attack from any quarter, and frequently not even visible to the occupants.
David D

**bvs** · 9th March 2021, 08:48

The pic above shows a fairly standard C47/Dak interior with the addition of 2 x long range fuel tanks just behind the flight deck (No Smoking :) )
The 8 'soft' seats appear to also have Parachutes - for Crew and 'Kickers' ?

**bvs** · 9th March 2021, 08:52

From the awm.gov.au website....

Part of the interior of a 243 Sqn (RAF) VIP Dakota (Lounge Area),there are a few more pics on the website but no other interior detail pics.

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C203745

**Franek Grabowski** · 10th March 2021, 16:32

The seats in the front look a bit more comfortable than jump seats I get used to. I do not think that every aircraft used for VIP transport had such a luxurious compartment. Bulk of them were more alike passenger aircraft I guess. I am checking the aircraft flown by the Polish leaders, and it seems they were not such a special aircraft, so of a somewhat lower standard. Still, no jumpseats I guess. Judging by ORBs, the aircraft were used for both cargo and passenger flights, so not such a high standard plush VVIP personal aircraft. Unfortunately, aircraft interiors were rarely photographed, and not much is visible through cargo door if open.