Warbird Information Exchange

In a new book that I am reviewing for Aviation History Magazine, the author claims that the term "Dakota" for wartime British C-47s is not the name of a Native American tribe but an acronym that comes from the phrase "Douglas Aircraft COmpany Transport Aircraft," i.e. DACOTA, which was simplified to Dakota.

I have never heard this, but the author is Walter Boyne, one of the most respected of all American aviation historians. Can anybody confirm that Walt is correct?

The Brits were fond of using Alliteration in their naming conventions for land-based aircraft, so they needed a name that started with a "D" to follow suit when they began acquiring the DC-3/C-47 via Lend-Lease. The US had named the aircraft the "Skytrain", but that didn't work for the Brits so the story goes that they found a happy accident - an Acronym that was also a good name DACoTA. I've found at least 4 other references online to this source for "Dakota" with variations on this story. How "correct" that story is will remain to be seen, but it does at least seem to be a plausible one.

The British used many American place names for the American aircraft they used. Boston, Hudson, Maryland, Baltimore, Catalina, Ventura, Bermuda, and quite a few more. Dakota fits right in with all these- and you can't expect the Brits to have known the difference between North and South Dakota (if indeed there is any).

I have to agree with the esteemed posters on Key some years ago - most likely is back-formation after Dakota was assigned based on a location and alliteration.
https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthr ... -come-from

Errol, I think you're right. The acronym business simply seemed too neat. (And if they did want to go with an acronym, why didn't they call it the Dacota?)

I was aware that the official Boeing site uses the acronym story, but that means little. That paragraph could have been written--probably was written--by some 25-year-old intern in the PR department who had never even seen a DC-3, much less a Dakota...

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And the training aircraft,Harvard ,Yale ,and Cornell