IMO, these planes need to be flying, not sitting in a museum gathering dust somewhere.
CAF does great work. They come to town and put on a show fairly regularly.
This is REALLY COOL! Good on the folks involved for helping to preserve a part of our history.
And I agree that changing the name was a mistake...PC run amok.
Awesome news! Thanks for sharing. Hats off to Staff Sgt. Matt Scales for finding the old girl.
Historically significant, in their own right, aircraft should be in museums. You wouldn’t fly the Memphis Belle, Enola Gay or Flak Bait.
This aircraft led the mass airborne assault on DDay. That puts it in the same class as those others, too valuable to be risked in flight. There are other C-47s out there (CAF has two, one of which, Black Sparrow, will being going to Baesler for TurboDak conversion as part of the deal to acquire “Brother”), and other DDay veterans that can and should be flown instead.
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.
Why would ANYONE cut up an even remotely airworthy C47?
Nice story. Thank you for posting it.
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
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.