Sipsey Street Irregulars: The Only World War II Aircraft Still in Active Service

Friday, December 28, 2012

The Only World War II Aircraft Still in Active Service

(The C-47 was) “one of the most vital pieces of military equipment used in winning the war.” -- Dwight D. Eisenhower.

God bless the Gooney Bird.

Some aircraft seem to fly forever. A prime example has been the DC-3/C-47. The latest revival for this iconic plane is a refurb that creates a 13 ton aircraft with a rebuilt and lengthened fuselage, upgraded wings, new engines, and modern electronics. Called the BT-67, it is in use by eight civilian (including the U.S. Forestry Service) organizations and nine air forces (including the U.S. Air Force and the Chinese Air Force). The BT-67 is about a meter (three feet) longer than the original DC-3 and 1.5 tons heavier. Cruising speed is 380 kilometers an hour, compared to 240 for the DC-3. Range is more than twice the 1,600 kilometers of the DC-3. Typical load for the BT-67 (4 tons) is also about twice what the DC-3 would normally haul. The longer range made the rugged BT-67 capable of delivering airfreight to research stations in Antarctica, from an airport in South Africa. The BT-67s cost about $5 million each.

Here's the link for the Basler BT-67, and here's a photo of one in Antarctica:

6 comments:

SWIFT said...: The picture of the Gooney Bird brought back memories. I was a Marine and drew a 3 day rest with the Air Force in Thailand. I was flying on a 47 from Viet-nam, across Laos to Udorn Thailand. Over Laos, the pilot decided he wanted to see the Ho Chi Minh trail up close. So, we did a low-level. Never in my time in Nam have I seen anything bombed as the section we flew over. Bomb craters were interlocked as far as the eye could see. The trail itself look like pictures you see in history books of the Burma road. Exciting as it was, I remember being damn concerned about the NVA opening up on us with 20mm AA guns known to protect the trail. The Gooney had no defenses, but fortunately, nothing happened.; December 28, 2012 at 5:26 AM
Anonymous said...: My Dad was RCAF. I got to sit in 'Pinocchio' as a Child.
:...A Dakota fitted with CF104 Radome.
I'll always remember FLYING Magazines article that called the DC3 'A 13 Ton Toad bounding down the Runway in search of less than Perfect Landings'
Our Static Display at CFB Comox Airbase features one,, it's in pretty rundown Condition, her Rudder in Tatters, a string of old, bold Cessnas humbled in her Dirty Wake.
..aaand were Back, Squawking 7600; December 28, 2012 at 7:51 AM
Maddawg308 said...: If I ever win the lottery, I always dreamed of getting a pilot's license and buying a C-47 and painting it camo like the AC-47s that were used in Vietnam. I wish I could own one of these historic and tough birds!; December 28, 2012 at 9:31 AM
Anonymous said...: Some classics never die. I'm glad to see this updated and rejuvenated to continued use into the next century.
Just something about the sweep and grace of the old planes and wings that hasn't been carried over into the newest generation.

B Woodman
III-per; December 28, 2012 at 9:49 PM
Skip said...: Put many pax hours in 47's flown by Air America.; December 28, 2012 at 10:52 PM
Margaret Sutton said...: Just flew over our garden we are lucky enough to see all the usual fly pasts go over too what a wonderful sight; June 25, 2014 at 2:04 PM

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.

Sipsey Street Irregulars

Friday, December 28, 2012

The Only World War II Aircraft Still in Active Service

6 comments:

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