THE DC-3 FLIES ITSELF!

[OldAirmail]

While checking out the capabilities of various old propliners I came across this:

THE DC-3 FLIES ITSELF!

"In 1957, a USAF DC-3 ran out of gas over Missouri. Everyone bailed out and made it to the ground safely. The DC-3 glided over the horizon and made a perfect, unassisted landing in a cornfield."

Still surfing, so that's all for now.

Any comments are more than welcome.

[Anthindelahunt]

Great find OAM.Thanks for posting.

The DC3 was so balanced it looked like it could fly itself.
I had a DC3 glider as a kid.Flew perfectly.Probably the greatest
plane ever.

Anthin.

[BLAZE]

WOW! What a story. I can't wait to read or see some media footage on that DC-3 story. Hell of a find OAM.
What I'ed like to know is.. why didn't they just coast her in, instead of jumping ship? I guess they didn't care.
it wasn't their plane.

I'm still in the prosses of reading that page. I just thought this was messed up and funny at the same time.

In 1959, John Stevens was flying a planeload of monkeys from Pakistan to Morocco in a DC-3. He ran into a storm, and several crates broke loose, giving the monkeys the run of the airplane. The pilot, concentrating on his flying, did not notice the carnival going on behind him. When the monkeys invaded the cockpit, it was too late for him to do anything. Buttons, switches, and levers were all fair game for the playful primates. Stevens never admitted the monkeys helped land the plane but he said he'd rather fly through a monsoon than with a cockpit full of monkeys again.

Buttons, switches, and levers were all fair game for the playful primates. NOT GOOD!
Tell me that pilot didn't hit a bottle after he landed.

[OldAirmail]

"why didn't they just coast her in, instead of jumping ship?"

I can think of several reasons;

4 - It's an old army plane, so @#$% it.

3 - It's an old army plane, so the experience of jumping is worth more than the plane is worth.

2 - It can't carry nuclear weapons, so @#$% it.

And #1 - It ain't a nuclear tipped missle.


Not to say anything bad about the USAF (I was one of them), but their un-official viewpoint, at that time, was that THEY would win the next war all by themselves, and it would be done with nuclear weapons.

Oh, they figured that the army would have a place in it, but it would mostly be cleaning us the ground mess.

[BLAZE]

LOL ..

Yup!.. on all four.