VH-EAQ  Douglas DC-3CS1C3G                     (c/n  11971)

                                      

                                             VH-EAQ was a lend-lease ex C-47A-1-DK 42-92197, acquired by the RAAF in 1943 as
                                             A65-22 with radio call sign VHCTV.   It was sold to Qantas in June 1949 and used in their
                                             Papua/New Guinea services.    It was later converted to a sprayer by fitting 720 gal capacity
                                             insecticide tanks in the fuselage.  The above shot, from the Barrie Colledge collection, was
                                             taken at Mildura Airport in 1950 whilst it was undergoing grasshopper spraying trials.   In Sept
                                             1960 it was sold to Trans Australia Airlines for their New Guinea Sunbird services and re-
                                             registered VH-SBC.   In July 1962 it was leased to the Royal Netherlands East Indies Air Force
                                             for six years where its identity was X-18.   At the end of the lease it was sold in the US as N370.
                                             and was cancelled from the Australian register in November 1968.   In 1977 it was re-registered
                                             N7302 and in 1979 went to Commercials Air Freight.  It was damaged beyond repair at Oaxaca,
                                             Mexico on 11 December 1979 although its registration not not actually expire until June 2011.