A short while ago, in one of my posts, I'd referred to Airnorth, the Northern Territory (Darwin) based Australian (regional/charter) airline. Today, coincidentally, I came across another repaint of this (same) Australian airline. It's for a DC-3/C-47 (Reg. VH-MMA). But, this is an older livery of the Airnorth airline, mostly of metal color, and the imprint on the fuselage appears as "AIrnorth" [i.e. first two letters of the name are uppercase, and, no space between "AIr" and "north"; see images below].

I also noted that the plane, originally built in 1943, is still airworthy of as of 2020...just amazing...!! So, it, certainly, has a story to tell, from its remarkably long life...

Here, below, are fascinating glimpses, I gathered, about its life-story:

1. Born (i.e. construction complete), May 22, 1943, as a C-47, at Douglas Long Beach plant, CA. (Please note in the middle of WWII).
2. Initially delivered to USAF, but, in the same year, in 1943, on June 21, entered service with RAAF.
3. Issued to No 34 Squadron using code letters 'FD-C' on July 02, 1943.
4. At the end of the War, sold to MMA at Brisbane as a source of spares on January 08, 1947.  (Note: That's why MMA appears now in the Reg. ID).
5. Fortunately, however, converted to civilian deployment, and operated its first revenue service (Perth - Darwin) on October 01, 1947.
6. In 1969, withdrawn from use and and stored at Perth having flown 54,619 hours.
7. (1969-1979) Operated in Papua New Guinea etc. for various airlines, including Ansett Airlines.
8. Withdrawn from use (again), but, in 1983, sold to Airnorth, for $17k, then rebuilt at a cost of $150k, and assumed Reg. ID (VH-MMA), that you see in the images below.
9. Operated its final passenger flight on February 28, 1998.
10. (Finally?) withdrawn from service and stored at Darwin in 2009 (it had flown 68,316 hours).
11. In early 2012, the wings were removed from the aircraft and rebuilt. The wings were then re-installed on it, in July 2013, by engineers in Darwin, Australia.
12. The restoration was completed in March 2015 and it's now displayed in the Darwin Airport aviation area.
13. And, as of 2020, the plane is airworthy...and still flying...!!

What more one can ask of a plane...?? Of course, it goes without saying, without the (dedicated) love and affection, for the plane, by the people involved, such an endurance wouldn't have been possible...

(And, as per my previous ENNK (Norway) post), since my floatplane Cessna 140 was not equipped to land onto the Narvik airport (the plane was not an Amphibian), here, I've (respectfully) taken this venerable C-47 to Narvik, and landed it on (ENNK) Rwy 19 (i.e. approach from the north...from the Hålogaland bridge side)...

Hope you enjoy these few pictures of this amazing DC-3/C-47, seen, below, approaching and touching down into scenic Narvik (Norway)...!!

Edited July 11, 20214 yr by P_7878

Nice pics!

Nice set of shots !

cheers 😉

WOW!! Thanks for sharing!!!!

 

I have all 3 VH-MMA DC3 paints if you want them, you already have 1, The other is under Hardys and how it sits today just down the road from me

im not sure why its not coming up as polished as it was first painted as when i did it (see inserted image)

The  second letter "i" is in lower case there's only a small gap between the dot and i

 

Edited July 12, 20214 yr by jeansy

Erv, pmplayer, Alaska738: Thanks much...!!

 

11 hours ago, jeansy said:

I have all 3 VH-MMA DC3 paints if you want them, you already have 1, The other is under Hardys and how it sits today just down the road from me

im not sure why its not coming up as polished as it was first painted as when i did it (see inserted image)

The  second letter "i" is in lower case there's only a small gap between the dot and i

Matt:

Appreciated chiming in here...!!

I'd, in fact, recently used one of your (Do-228) Airnorth repaints, please see below, (with "Do the TOP END"...tourism slogan...🙂...), for one of my posts about Bella Coola (CYBD), BC. I was stating, in that post, that you occasionally visit around here...and here we go...🙂...

Airnorth has been always one of my favorite airlines...along with the other (Canadian) Air North...(of similar name). And, the Australian a/c registry database, is one of the best for research, for any AU a/c history...

You're right about the font, now that I examine further, the "i" is indeed dotted and lowercase...

And, I'm wondering if the darker shade I've got, in my post, is an artifact of my FSX/SE (one never knows), but the polished duo, you've shown look marvelous. Hardy Aviation one is interesting...Aren't they the engineers, who had re-installed the rebuilt wings back on VH-MMA...? Good stuff...and this is a special DC-3/C-47 indeed...!

Yes, I would like these two polished silver liveries, if possible,...please point me to the site where I can download...thanks...!!

Theyre were all on Oxz when the server crashed, however all the paints saved on a HD, I will dropbox link them shortly, I have a heap of Airnorth liveries for real life aircraft and some fictional ones, most of them should be here under matthew levi or matt levi,

On 7/13/2021 at 8:41 AM, P_7878 said:

Yes, I would like these two polished silver liveries, if possible,...please point me to the site where I can download...thanks...!!

 

These are the MJ C47 paints i could find on the HD, Im missing some because there are a lot more than what I could find

Ive zipped them all into one zip, pick and choose what you can find, i will keep looking

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iyrkkzbkhl3k4s9/FSX_MJ_Douglas_C-47_v3 Beta_VH_MMA.zip?dl=0

***Super Set***

2 hours ago, Phantom88 said:

***Super Set***

Thank you, Patrick...!!

 

12 hours ago, jeansy said:

These are the MJ C47 paints i could find on the HD, Im missing some because there are a lot more than what I could find

Ive zipped them all into one zip, pick and choose what you can find, i will keep looking

Appreciated, Matt...!!

I picked up these repaint files from the Dropbox...including the two (silver ones) for Hardy's and Airnorth...

This is more than sufficient, Matt, so, please don't look no more...(after all, I've tons of your other a/c repaints to fly still...🙂...I know it's easy to fly but hard to paint...🙂...)...

Thanks again...!!

12 hours ago, P_7878 said:

Appreciated, Matt...!!

I picked up these repaint files from the Dropbox...including the two (silver ones) for Hardy's and Airnorth...

This is more than sufficient, Matt, so, please don't look no more...(after all, I've tons of your other a/c repaints to fly still...🙂...I know it's easy to fly but hard to paint...🙂...)...

Thanks again...!!

To easy, I have just over 900 paints on the HD with over 90% still to be uploaded here after the OZX and hovercontrol website crashes.

if there are any particular models you have, let me know and i will see if i have anything for it

23 hours ago, P_7878 said:

Thank you, Patrick...!!

 

Appreciated, Matt...!!

I picked up these repaint files from the Dropbox...including the two (silver ones) for Hardy's and Airnorth...

This is more than sufficient, Matt, so, please don't look no more...(after all, I've tons of your other a/c repaints to fly still...🙂...I know it's easy to fly but hard to paint...🙂...)...

Thanks again...!!

On that note with the files I sent you did the polished ally show up in sim

Yes, Matt, they now look good...

Here, below, is the Hardy's (I tested the texture both at daylight and also at twilight...)...lifting off into the same Narvik skies....

I maybe missing full polish, in FSX, but, they are certainly not dark....as before...

Thanks...!!

 

Edited July 16, 20214 yr by P_7878

good, I wanted to make sure you got the most out of the paint