IAF To Get Vintage Douglas DC3 ‘Dakota’ Aircraft This Year

The Indian Air Force will soon add a restored Douglas DC3 'Dakota' aircraft to its vintage fleet, as Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that it is now getting all the mandatory clearances.

Speaking to IANS, the businessman-turned-lawmaker said that the aircraft is currently in London and expected to arrive in India in some months.

"Since it is a long haul flight and has to fly over 11 countries, one has to get sanction from all these countries, for which we have applied for. I expect the aircraft to arrive in the country in the coming months and wish to officially hand it over on Vijay Diwas (Kargil War Victory commemorated every 16 December)," Chandrasekhar said.

The DC3 was acquired as scrap in Ireland by MP Chandrasekhar, whose father was a Dakota pilot in IAF, and has been meticulously restored by him in the UK.

Pitched first to the ex UPA government who declined the offer, only last year that a green signal came from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.