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Those aren't Dakotas are they, sort of hunchbacked at the tail...thicker...
If you are talking about the aircraft, They are C-46's. I flew into K-9, Pusan East in one.
Yes, that's what I was asking. I forgot you had firsthand experience there...looking at those guys must bring back some fond memories...and a few others.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cosine26
Here's a couple of links of interest... Curtiss C-46 Commando - Wikipedia
Here's one showing how many remain, surprising after this time. List of surviving Curtiss C-46 Commandos - Wikipedia
The Brits, who like to call aircraft by names, called them the Commando. They flew me into Korea and out after my fifty mission B26 tour. When I was in the USAF, we hardly ever called an aircraft by its name, only by it number, ergo: B-47, B-29 F-51, F-80 except for Gooney Bird.
FWIW.
Did they ever get the C-46 fuel leak problem worked or or do they fly with an exception certificate and fire observers like the B-29s?
Bob
Commonwealth also changed names. For instance an A20 Havoc became an RAF Boston.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cosine26
Bob
I do not know about the fuel leak in the C-46. I took only two flights in a C-46-one the worst (into Korea) and the other the best (out of Korea) .
I under stand that the C-46 did not fair well in the post WWII era as a commercial transport- due to high operating costs. The C-47 was OK and then the airlines started moving to the DC-4 and DC-6. Those two- R2800 engines burned about 200 gallons per hour, so a leak would have to be big to our run the engines.
FWIW
There is a TV show called "Ice Pilots" that takes place in the wilds of Canada. They fly a C 46 in that show,
BEAR
---------- Post added at 06:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:38 PM ----------
The C 46 did not have self sealing tanks that made it an easy target for ground fire. Not exactly what paratroopers like to ride in for combat jumps.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Womack
That's right too...Quote:
Originally Posted by BEAR
'Zactly...Quote:
Originally Posted by BEAR
There's at least one C-46 operational that is on the airshow circuit. I met a fellow that flew in C-46s in the CBI flying over the "Hump" to China.
There's a cargo operation that flies out of Long Beach airport that operates DC-3s (they have at least three of them) to Santa Catalina Island. Apparently the only economical aircraft for the runway on the island.
The McDonald Douglass plant that built them, although gone now, was across the street, tested and flew the completed aircraft out of Long Beach airport, then known as Daugherty Field.
I grew up around a DC-3 and a C-47 at the University of Tennessee. The C-47 was used by my father's group as an infrared imaging airframe. They cut a square port in the floor and bottom skin and mounted the cameras over it. My father was the photographer and worked the cameras with his feet dangling out the hatch. It was used in a CIA contract to develop the ability to remotely sense marijuana. They forwarded the project to NASA, where they were tasked with orbiting Cape Kennedy Space Center during the launch of Apollo 13. Had there been a launch abort in flight, the team was tasked with using the infrared gear to track down the capsule once it had been powered off the rocket assembly by the rocket motor in the launch escape tower.
The DC-3 was used to ferry the University of Tennessee school athletic teams to games. It suffered an interesting casualty when a Piedmont Airways DC-9 got its main mount off in the dirt while taxiing and the pilot electect to try and blast the plane pout with his engines. Unfortunately he attempted this while the stern of the ship was pointed at the general aviation ramp of Cherokee Aviation at McGhee Tyson airport in Knoxville. Once he pulled his throttles back, gave up, shut down, and exited the ship, the pilot came to realize that he had blown the control surfaces off of about forty aircraft including the U.T. Gooney Bird, and had deposited them neatly against the chain-link security fence behind the planes. My father and I arrived soon after. Piedmont flew in a crew over the hump of the Smokies from their hub in Charlotte. That crew made temporary repairs and then flew the planes over the hump to Charlotte where permanent repairs were made and certified. Amazing.
The pilot of the two Douglas planes and the U.T. Aero Commander was our good friend, Charlie Lockwood. I flew with him. Charlie was one of those guys who was absolutely dead serious about safety. If he made a short hop of five miles he'd properly preflight the plane before he took it up again and return. Charlie was killed and the DC-3 was destroyed in the '70s on the way back from a U.T. basketball game. He stopped in at a little airport to refuel and requested avgas. Before taking off he was seen preflighting the plane and checking the fuel cocks with a glass to make sure there wasn't any water in the gas. He took off, reported missing engines, tried to get back to the field, but he ran out of altitude. The FAA found that the attendant at the airport had filled the tanks with JP-4 jet fuel. Since it floats above avgas it didn't show in Charlie's fuel check. When the residual avgas ran out the engines conked out and that was that.
Bob