VP-YBK  de Havilland D.H.89A Dragon Rapide                  (c/n 6359)

                                 

                                       Rhodesian and Nyasaland Airways (RANA) was formed in 1933 to provide service from
                                       Salisbury to Bulawayo and Ndola in the Copper Belt.   Initially served by Puss Moths, the
                                       fleet was expanded in the mid 1930s to include five Rapides, one of which is seen above in
                                       this grainy old print.  This machine must have been the "flagship" since it is named "City of
                                       Salisbury".    RANA was bought out by the government of Southern Rhodesia in 1940 to
                                       become Southern Rhodesian Air Services, a branch of the Rhodesian Air Force.  VP-YBK
                                       was impressed into that service as SRAS304, and passed to CAA when that government
                                       sponsored line was formed on 1 June 1946.  This Rapide was written off in a crash at Balovale
                                       in December of 1947.