FOR years pilot Paddy Green has been obsessed with a Second World War plane used during D-Day - now finally he is reaching for the sky in one.

Fresh from a morning flight over the D-day beaches in France, the 57-year-old is still taking great delight in his new toy - a Douglas DC3 Dakota.

Paddy, a company director from Foggathorpe, near Holme-on-Spalding Moor, said: "I have had a life-long passion for old aircraft particularly the Douglas Dakota or DC3. I have never owned a plane before. I thought if I was going to buy one I would buy a big one.

"There were 10,500 of this plane built and there are probably 300 to 400 still flying in the world. This is aviation history. Wherever you go, people want to look at it."

With the help of a specialist engineer, Paddy tracked down a Dakota in Arizona, USA.

"We have looked at probably 10 to 15 Dakotas. This was the best. You have to look for things like corrosion. He told me he thought it was good. I said 'get it bought'. He knew what he was doing.

"We flew it back in May. Having tracked down the American D-Day pilot, 83-year-old Bill Allin, we met up with him en route. It was very emotional. He came with his World War Two flying cap and flew it again.

"It has bullet holes all over the front of it - we think that was at Arnhem. It is lucky to have survived."

They then flew home over Greenland and Iceland to Scotland and on to Liverpool Airport, where it is based.

Paddy, who uses professional pilots, did not admit to any other zany hobbies, saying: "This is eccentric enough. It is a moment of madness. It is a lovely old girl; a wonderful plane and gives so much pleasure to people who see it."

He said the Dakota was the world's "first true airliner", first flying 70 years ago this December.

"It is referred to as the plane that taught the world to fly - before it nobody really flew commercially. This changed that," he enthused.

The Dakota went on to become the transport and parachute airplane in the war.

"On D-Day it was a Dakota which dropped all the parachutes and towed all the gliders.

It is an important war plane which is why I bought it. It was in the American Air Force on D-Day."

Updated: 09:43 Thursday, July 14, 2005