#douglas dc 3

[osrphotography]

Since 1990, ZK-CAW has been on display at the local McDonald's and periodically makes the rounds on Facebook.

However, very few people actually know its history. Now said history is extremely long, so I'm going to gloss over a number of details.

Built at Long Beach, California, for the USAAF as a C-47A-65-DL, it was given the s/n 41-10460 and ferried to Brisbane to join the 5th Air Force by 1943.

It was briefly loaned to 38 SQDRN RAAF from April-October 1944. But was returned to the USAAF.

After the war, it was sold to Australian National Airways (ANA) and converted to DC-3 standard at Melbourne's Essendon Airport. This conversion included replacing the P&W Twin Wasp engines with Wright Cyclone engines.

After bouncing between Papua New Guinea and Australia, it was converted to Viewmaster standard by Butler Air Transport and sold to Ansett-ANA by 1958.

It was then promptly sold and re-re-engined to South Pacific Airlines of New Zealand (SPANZ). As Airlines of New Zealand, it operated as a subsidiary of Ansett-ANA, much to the chagrin of Air New Zealand and New Zealand National Airways Corporation. The aircraft was named RMA George Bolt.

SPANZ became famous for their more permissive attitude and their ability to operate in the heavily state owned airline industry in Aotearoa. To the point where the Auckland Star hilariously referred to SPANZ as capitalist and NZNAC as communist because you could smoke on SPANZ DC-3s. Furthermore, the NZNAC Skyliner DC-3s were done in order to compete with SPANZ.

After being sold to NZNAC for NZ£14,100 it went back to Australia and was briefly operated by Qantas Empire Airways and Fiji Airways* before being sold back to NZNAC in 1969.

It briefly operated for Mt. Cook Airlines and was slated for operations with South Seas Airways, but this fell through.

And so it was instead sold to Fieldair Ltd (t/as Airland) and renamed Whio. It ended its working life as an Ag-Dak in 1985, having flown 56,232 hours. It was towed to Whanganui with the intentions of being made airworthy by Wanganui Airwork. This was deemed impractical, and so she was instead taken up to Taupō for refurbishment to Viewmaster standard in 1989.

Finally, in 1990, she was moved from the Taupo Car Sales / Aeroplane Car Co yard to McDonald's, where she remains.

For a full history, click here. For further reading on SPANZ and the Viewmaster standard DC-3, see SPANZ: South Pacific Airlines of New Zealand and Their DC-3 Viewmasters by Richard Waugh and Peter Layne.

*Likely the first Fiji Airways, not the rebranded Air Pacific.

[jh0721]

Douglas DC-3

[nocternalrandomness]

1944 Douglas R4D-6 Skytrain on display at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum, Pennsylvania

[deutschland-im-krieg]

Amsterdam-Schiphol airport, 25.6.1938, dominated by the Deutsche Luft Hansa Focke-Wulf Fw 200 V2 Condor (D-AETA) Westfalen. Alongside it is a Fokker-assembled Douglas DC-3 (PH-ARZ) Ijsvogel of KLM, then a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52/3m. To the left is Curtiss T-32 Condor (G-AEZE) of International Air Freight and to its right a KLM Lockheed Super Electra (PH-APE) Ekster. For more, see my Facebook group - Eagles Of The Reich

[lonestarflight]

"The Space Shuttle Enterprise is mounted atop a NASA 747 carrier aircraft on the runway of the Edwards Air Forces Base in southern California after the third captive-active flight (CA-3) of the Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests (ALT). CA-3 was a full dress rehearsal for the shuttle's first free flight the following month, and the pilots were Fred Haise and Charles Gordon Fullerton."

Note: the R4D and Mini-Sniffer in foreground.

Date: July 26, 1977

NASA ID: EC77-8143

1157145138

[ghostwarriorrrr]

1944 Douglas R4D-6 Skytrain on display at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum, Pennsylvania

[bigglesworld]

Douglas DC-3-178. At Tulsa KTUL. In 2017

[rabbitcruiser]

On 2 October 2001, Swissair was officially grounded and the company was forced to cancel all flights due to cash flow problems.

[dcthreepainter]

Boss Bird Mark II

For reasons by owner John David Tinsley (of Tinsley's Chicken 'n rolls fame), he had MSN 2145 reregistered and her paint scheme altered, mainly replacing the tail logo upon the tail.

[aviatrix-ash]

I think about her often, the DC-3 who's a floatplane.

[stone-cold-groove]

Skysleeper at dawn - 1938.

[specter-177]

Douglas DC-3 takeoff

[jh0721]

DC3

[nocternalrandomness]

1943 DC-3C from American Airpower Heritage Museum, Dallas, TX visiting Scottsdale Airport, Az

[postcard-from-the-past]

Interior of a Douglas DC-3 propeller-driven airliner

Dutch vintage postcard

[lonestarflight]

McDonnell Douglas MD-2001 "Orient Express" Hypersonic Transport (NASP).

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