February 2018 FLYPAST 83Images of demobilised Dragon
Rapides that were turned to a wide
variety of tasks. Some of them are
still earning their keep todayDominie NR750 entered service with the Station Flight at Halton, Bucks, in January 1945, retiring in- Demobbed as G-AKIF, it joined the Parachute Regiment Free Fall Club in May 1968 and was used
by the display team that later became known as the ‘Red Devils’. It is shown in the summer of 1969
at Lasham, Hampshire, with neatly-bundled ’chutes and helmets at the ready. Disposed of by the
‘Paras’ in the summer of 1971, today ‘India-Fox’ is part of the Duxford-based Classic Wings fl eet.
By late 1957 the Automobile Association (AA) realised that it needed a larger aircraft for
its traffi c monitoring duties and made plans to dispose of the appropriately registered
Auster J/5R Alpine G-APAA. Dragon Rapide G-AHKV was acquired in November 1957 and fl ew
from Fairoaks, Surrey, in the organisation’s distinctive yellow and black colours. Built at
Loughborough in late 1944 as NR693, it was stored throughout its RAF career. The AA sold
G-AHKV in 1964 having replaced it with Piper Apache G-APZE. ‘Kilo-Victor’ continued to fl y in
other hands until 1968 when it was ignominiously burnt at Elmdon, Warwickshire.
Today, Dragon Rapide G-AGSH graces the Shuttleworth Collection’s Old Warden Aerodrome,
on loan. Built in 1945 as NR808 it saw no military service and was civilianised that August
as G-AGSH. In August 1965 it was acquired by the RAF Abingdon Sport Parachute Club –
illustrated at its Oxfordshire base in September 1967 with Blackburn Beverley C.1 XH123
behind – and sold in February 1975. It has been at Old Warden since 2009.