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A truly amazing story!!  8-)

http://www.douglasdc3.com/dc2half/dc2half.htm

Cheers Theis

Indeed.

To be fair "1/2" marks are actually reasonably common, often ending up as prototypes of the later model. You also get them with cars too - the facelifted Mazda MX-5 Mk 2 was the Mk 2.5!

Indeed.

To be fair "1/2" marks are actually reasonably common, often ending up as prototypes of the later model. You also get them with cars too - the facelifted Mazda MX-5 Mk 2 was the Mk 2.5!

It's not an official mark in this case... it was not a prototype, it was a jury rig.
One of my favorite "Gooney" stories... that site, BTW, has tons of great DC-3/Dak info.

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It's not an official mark in this case... it was not a prototype, it was a jury rig.

"1/2" marks generally aren't official - if they were they'd usually go up to the next number... Another example I was thinking of earlier would be the Meteor Mk 7.5, used by Martin Baker for ejection seat testing - the fuselage and wings of a Mk 7 and the tail assembly of a Mk 8...

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It's not an official mark in this case... it was not a prototype, it was a jury rig.

"1/2" marks generally aren't official - if they were they'd usually go up to the next number... Another example I was thinking of earlier would be the Meteor Mk 7.5, used by Martin Baker for ejection seat testing - the fuselage and wings of a Mk 7 and the tail assembly of a Mk 8...

What I mean is, this wasn't a production concept- it was hobbled together that way in the field out of desperation.

I don't know which would be scarier... flying the "2 1/2" or flying that other DC-3 that brought the DC-2 wing over... bolted under  the fuselage!!  

Old story, and an unsurprising one. Somehow, the Douglas planes were a lot more... robust and durable planes that a lot of others their contemporaries and even more modern ones. Proof is the still important number of re-engined DC8 and DC10 in the cargo business still around, while there's almost no contemporary plane to compare them to, nowadays (not to talk about the not little number of DC3 still flying, some even converted to turboprop).

Reminds me of this story:


http://members.tripod.com/~LAMKINS/FrontierCrash.html

Never get tired of that one...good ol' DC-3.  ;D

Douglas built them strong.

Sure did!!!