Posted on 06/08/2015 3:17:01 PM PDT by tcrlaf
Late on the night of June 5, 1944, a Douglas C-47 Skytrain commanded by Lt. Col. John M. Donalson launched with 15 paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division on board. They were the very tip of the Allied invasion spear, leading a formation of hundreds of aircraft carrying thousands of troops. Just after midnight on June 6, That’s All, Brother navigated through intense German fire and low clouds to drop the first Allied troops to land in Normandy, France, on D-Day, commencing Operation Overlord.
Seven decades later, Staff Sgt. Matt Scales of the Alabama Air National Guard was researching Donalson’s story when he discovered the aircraft—serial number 42-92847—was in a boneyard, slated to be cut up and converted into a modern turboprop. Basler Turbo Conversions LLC of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, alerted to the historic significance of the aircraft, put the brakes on that conversion, and ultimately struck a deal with the Commemorative Air Force, which plans to purchase and restore That's All, Brother to airworthy condition, in detail just as it was on the day it led the Allied invasion.
“This is a modern miracle,” CAF President and CEO Stephan C. Brown said of the discovery, in a news release. “The aircraft was within weeks of being torn apart.”
The C-47 chosen to lead the invasion was named by Donalson as a message to Adolf Hitler, though its D-Day paint scheme would be covered by subsequent owners—16 of them in all. It is presently painted as a Vietnam-era gunship, though it never flew such a mission.
The CAF plans to meticulously restore the invasion stripes and other features in place when Donalson and his crew led the largest airborne assault in history.
(Excerpt) Read more at aopa.org ...
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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