C-47 Dakota

Aircraft recognition poster of a Douglas C-47 Dakota. Air Diagram number AD4670, issue 1, sheet 1, January 1951.

Aircraft recognition charts were an essential training tool in learning to recognise aircraft. They depicted silhouettes of both allied and enemy aircraft and were used to help military personnel and members of the Royal Observer Corps to quickly identify whether an aeroplane was friendly or hostile. The Douglas Dakota was designed and built pre-war as a civil airliner, however, it saw extensive use in the air forces of Allied nations during and after the war as a transport aircraft. Over 10,000 were built, of which over 1,900 served with the RAF.