Posted on 06/08/2015 3:17:01 PM PDT by tcrlaf
Happy to see the CAF got this plane to restore.
I was fortunate to have visited the Headquarters of the Confederate Air Force in ‘78 at Harlingen, TX. It was a memorable experience and their name should have never been changed.
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Why would ANYONE cut up an even remotely airworthy C47?
Certainly there need to be flying warbirds. But the examples of Carolyn, the Franco He 111 and Liberty Belle (and others) show that there are risks involved that are too great for aircraft of specific historic importance.
In this case it’s not really cut up but cut up and rebuild.
Baseline C-47s are pretty expensive to maintain for the value they provide. Replacing the radials with turboprops, putting in a fuselage plug to take advantage of the extra capacity conveyed by the new engines makes a lot of sense.
Nice story. Thank you for posting it.
When WWII started my father was a line supervisor at Douglas making DC-3/C-47s......Although he tried to enlist Douglas refused to let him go saying that he was an essential War materials worker......yep Rosie the Riveter worked for dad.....lololol.....What a way to win the war!
God bless you, Donald Douglas!
CC
I saw a DC-3 flying out of our local airport this past weekend. I heard it first, one of the engines was abnormally loud.
That just ain’t right.
I am so glad this plane is being saved!!!
The first plane ride I had was in a DC3. It was probably a converted C47 as this was about 1955 and surplus 47’s were the mainstay of new airlines that flew between small town to small town.
We had West Coast Airlines. My dad would often take me to the local airport to watch them come and go I’ll always remember and be in love with the sound of those radials and the feel of how the plane feels under seat as they taxi on big balloon tires.
While in the Navy I flew in one from Oakland to San Diego. This would have been in the later 1960s. Maybe 1967 or so
My first plane ride was in a DC-3...from Daytona Beach to Jacksonville. I was about 7 years old. I still remember the hard time I had to walk up the aisle to my seat.
I grew up in Harlingen and went to every Airsho from 1978 to 1991.
The last time I was in La Paz, Bolivia a local air freight company was still flying DC-3s. Well made aircraft.
They weren’t going to scrap it, they were going to turn it into a modern, turboprop cargo plane.
Basler pulls the old engines, lengthens the fuselage, adds modern turboprop engines and makes an old C-47 into an aircraft good for another 50+ years.
They are good people and there is no doubt in my mind that the minute they learned the significance of the airframe, it would be on the way to restoration.
Flew on a D C 3 many times in the 50’s and 60’s. Loved the plane. Always knew it would get me wherever I was going. Had some rough rides in very foul weather, but the bird could fly through anything.
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