#C-47 Skytrain

[thestonecuttersguild]

Thank you Air Force, for having such great post war liveries. Oshkosh 2023

[thestonecuttersguild]

Crazy picture. The 17 is shot from under the wing of a B-24, with a C-47 in the background. The C-47 looks like it has the short lived red border insignia.

Homesick Angel of the 341st Bomb Squadron in Italy, 1943. She would be lost with 9 KIA and 1 POW on 16 November 1943

[nocternalrandomness]

Skytrains stacked at chino

[stone-cold-groove]

They packed the attack... Douglas Aircraft Company ad - 1944.

[usafphantom2]

17 September 1944. The Netherlands, operation Market Garden began. Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in WWII. It was the largest airborne operation up to that time.

@ron_eisele via X

[thestonecuttersguild]

I'd love to be so close.

Douglas DC-3 (C-47 Skytrain/Dakota)

Aircraft Version: Douglas C-47A Skytrain

[aviationgeek71]

Ballad of a Gooney Bird

Gazing skyward, her tail-wheel configuration appears as if she's ready to fly—embracing the celestial world above, loving the heavens like her airmen within.

Pulling chocks from her wheels, line personnel scramble beneath her soft beautiful lines. Aerodynamic curves, waiting to serve her desires, a calling to the sky.

The calm before flight, interrupted by the captain's call, "Clear, right!" A signal to anyone nearby to remain clear of the right propeller.

Pressing the primer, starter, and vibrator switches to the right, the first officer watches as her three-blade propeller begins to rotate on the starboard engine. On the twelfth rotation, puffs of smoke pour from the exhaust as the C-47 rumbles to life—vibrating the entire airframe.

Quickly releasing the starter switch, the first officer keeps pressure on the remaining switches, monitoring the response from the engine. As the rumble transitions to a roar, he releases the vibrator switch while gently advancing the mixture lever, he continues to work the primer until her engine settles into a consistent hum. 

Waiting for the signal from the captain, the first officer prepares to repeat the procedure on her left engine—accomplishing the same series of steps that would be repeated countless times through the decades prior to each flight.

Whether preparing for her daring airborne drops over Normandy; flying the Hump between India and China; to rescuing U.S. forces from the frozen world of North Korea; or supplying the Berlin airlift; the rumble of each engine start still echos through aviation history today.

While her civilian sister, the Douglas DC-3, would serve U.S. airlines, the C-47 Skytrain—sometimes referred to as Gooney Bird—operated as a military transport aircraft from WW2 to Vietnam. While so many other aircraft steal the spotlight, the U.S. C-47 played a major role in conflict, a role unmatched during her era of flight.

Even today, her DC-3 sister still rumbles off runways, serving poorer nations around the globe. A testament to superior aircraft design, a soft simple beauty only recognized by her airmen.

My photos: Douglas C-47 Skytrain Mott's Military Museum, Groveport, October 16, 2021.

By @aviationgeek71

[osrphotography]

USAAF 43-49219 / ZK-DAK masquerading as NZ3546, making a low(ish) pass over Dairy Flat.

msn 26480 was constructed as a C-47B-10-DK c. 1942 and was taken on charge by the USAAF as 43-49219 c. 1943.

By April 1959, it had been demobilised and sold to Philippines Airlines and given the c/r PI-C486. It flew with them until April 1970 when it was sold to Papuan Air Transport as VH-PNM. It was sold to Anssett Airlines of Papua New Guinea in July that year.

After bouncing around Queensland for a few years it was exported to Aotearoa with the c/r ZK-DAK in 1987.

Seen in D-Day colours. 6/07/04. It wore these colours from 1986-c. 2006.

In plain white livery. 1/12/06. By 2007 it was in RNZAF colours.

The real 3546 was briefly ZK-AWQ before becoming D6-CAG in the Comoros. It was sold to the RSAF becoming s/n 6863 and converted to a C-47TP by WonderAir c. 1980s(?). It became N81907 in 1998 and in 2001 became ZS-OJL. It was last seen in 2006 at Wonderboom National Aiport (PRY/FAWB) sans engines, wings and rudder.

[c-130hercules]

Douglas FC-47D tail no. 0-48579—the original “Puff the Magic Dragon”—carried three 7.62mm GE miniguns in makeshift mounts. (U.S. Air Force)

An AC-47’s miniguns, each firing at a rate of 6,000 rounds per minute, unleash on Viet Cong positions. (U.S. Air Force)

With its armament of twin 40mm cannons and a pair of 20mm rotary guns, this Spectre awaits its next mission in a revetment at Thailand’s Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base. (U.S. Air Force)

4th Special Operations Squadron crewmen operate an AC-130U’s 105mm gun. (U.S. Air Force)

To supplement the AC-130 in Vietnam, the Fairchild AC-119G and K were developed. (U.S. Air Force)

An AC-130H from the 16th Special Operations Squadron heads out on another mission. (U.S. Air Force)

[thestonecuttersguild]

Oshkosh 2023

[chernobog13]

"Whaddaya mean ain't no midgets allowed on the flight deck?"

[monkeyssalad-blog]

C-47 taking off by TK622 Via Flickr: An unidentified C-47 taking off. Presumably taken at Nadzab Airfield, New Guinea 1944.

[usaac-official]

Silver Queen, the personal B-17 transport of General LeMay, and a C-47 of the 27th Air Transport Group at RAF Heston, 1944

[madkot]

Douglas C-47 Skytrain

[nocternalrandomness]

Placid Lassie coming in low