American Airpower Musum- part 4- Gooneybird

[beaky]

No WWII hangar-museum is complete without an airworthy C-47...the importance of this design to the Allied cause in that war (and after) cannot be overstated. And as an airliner, the DC-3 is legendary. It's been said that "the only thing that can replace a DC-3 is another Dc-3".
Amen.








     Not exactly regulation, but I like this: must be comforting when flying in the crud or the dark (or dark crud) to see a contented duck resting on each wingtip: one red; one green.










All right, time to climb aboard...







She's still outfitted as a cargo/jump plane... this is the view aft. Unfortunately, there's a thick and cloudy plexiglass wall behind the flight deck, so no pictures of that this time.








This old girl has been around, as evidenced by the markings on this electrical component...l'chaim, baby!

     




Looking forward to seeing this lady fly... might even get to take a ride one of these days (museum contributors can ride as part of the annual D-Day commemoration). Love those darn Gooneys!!

     


Next: part 5- models and dioramas

[Jared]

Thanks for sharing some pictures of history

[Jakemaster]

Beautiful!  Lucky you, Ive never even been on board a Dak...

Interesting to see the hebrew labeling, really shows the history!

And that saying is very true, nothing else can replace a DC-3.  

[F3Hadlow]

Some great composition there

[quote]And that saying is very true, nothing else can replace a DC-3.

[ozzy72]

The duck is just sooooooooo cool

[beaky]

Some great composition there


Yeah I agree, the RAF should replace it's C17s and C130s with Dakotas since they are obviously better...

Well, those are both a hell of a lot faster and can carry more weight, but taking maintenance cost into consideration, compare the cost  per ton of cargo or personnel per hour... I'm not necessarily talking about an old C-47, I mean a new one, maybe with turboprops on it... faster response time aside, The C130 and C17 can't compete for overall utility and efficiency.

There are some old C130s still flying, but we'll see how the C17 fleet is doing when they reach the 60-plus-year-old point versus the C47.
And I don't think either of those types has ever been used for civilian transport with virtually the same configuration as the military versions, which is also worth taking into account.

At any rate, that quote predates both of your examples...