• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.

    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

DC-3 lands itself

Gliderman8

Great Pumpkin
Gold
Country flag
Offline
I heard about this while watching the Smithsonian channel today. Being skeptical I looked it up. It did happen!!

1FB9D663-AD5E-4B9E-8712-DF5559A079AE.jpeg
 
Many consider the DC-3 as the aircraft which made commercial aviation a success. And I think Ike said the most important tools for victory in WW2 were the C-47, the Jeep, the bazooka, and the atomic bomb. And I'd bet the guys who flew Gooney Birds in Vietnam could tell many stories similar to the "landed itself in a corn field".

For a great read, check out Holden's "The Legacy of the DC-3" (with foreword by Don Douglas!). Amazing story of the aircraft first meant to be a transcontinental "sleeper".

A trip in a DST:


Elliot - thanks for posting.
Tom M.
 
One of the toughest and most dependable aircraft ever built. We had a corporate one at the airport where I and a partner were flying a B-25 converted for RCA electronics testing but never got a chance to fly the DC-3. Shame I can't put that one down in the logbook. :( PJ
 
They were used in S.E.A. as the "commuter" birds. Would go between all the bases in the area. Couldn't log flight time on those, had to list as "passenger".
 
Basil - in the Miramar photo, I think that's a "Super DC-3". Note the extended "dorsal fin", and the squared off tail - not the standard Douglas DC-3 shape.
 
Buffalo Airways are still using a DC-3 up in Canada delivering cargo when no one else can get through. On skis in the winter, on rubber in the summer. I think they have a couple of them plus other aircraft. :encouragement:
 
If you're lucky Tom the doc may meet you to serve a glass of Champaign after your flight..... of course you may have to point out the Champaign to him :ROFLMAO:
 
hmmm - with the price starting at $2900, maybe I'll just hide back in the baggage area.

eek
I ~think~ for that price you get PIC time.
 
Why worry over PIC time?!?! Th' thing lands itself! :devilgrin:

...and champagne comes in a bottle. Babies drink from those. :nana:
 
Very loud indeed, compared to today's passenger planes.

But one of the "innovations" of the DC 1, 2, and 3 was it's sound insulation, which made it *much* quieter inside than the Boeing 247 and Ford "Tri-motor" that came before. When you boarded the 3, the stewardess didn't give passengers "comfort kits", which included an airsickness bag, chewing gum, and cotton ear plugs! Comfort kits were standard issue on the Trimotors.
 
Not fa
Very loud indeed, compared to today's passenger planes.

But one of the "innovations" of the DC 1, 2, and 3 was it's sound insulation, which made it *much* quieter inside than the Boeing 247 and Ford "Tri-motor" that came before. When you boarded the 3, the stewardess didn't give passengers "comfort kits", which included an airsickness bag, chewing gum, and cotton ear plugs! Comfort kits were standard issue on the Trimotors.
Not familiar with the 247.
 
And the wing spar ran across the front of the cabin meaning anyone going from one side to another had to step over, and it wasn't just a couple inches. Was one of the things I've read that was noted at the time as a design flaw.
 
Back
Top