The DC-3s

That’s All Brother

After serving on D-Day, and in Operations Dragoon, Market Garden, Repulse, and Varsity, the airplane returned to the United States and was sold to the civilian market in 1945. During the course of many owners over the next several decades, the historical significance of the airplane was lost and it was eventually sold to be scrapped. Fortunately, two historians from the United States Air Force discovered that this historic airplane was lying in a boneyard in Wisconsin. The Commemorative Air Force was able to acquire the airplane, and through a large group of donors and volunteers, restore the airplane to flying status.

“That’s All, Brother” has been restored to its 1944 condition, including its D-Day paint scheme along with a thorough historic interior restoration. The CAF maintains airplanes to be artifacts of living history, and you can experience the airplane first hand by touring and even going for a flight.

D-Day Doll

D-Day Doll stayed in the fight after D-Day, flying in Operation Market Garden in Holland, the re-supply of Bastogne, then pushed on across the Rhine flying a variety of support missions and evacuating wounded to England. The D-Day Doll was one of 159 C-53D Skytrooper aircraft produced. Built at the Douglas factory in Santa Monica, California, she was delivered to the Army Air Force on July 7, 1943, and arrived at RAF Aldermaston in March 1944. Today the D-Day Doll still flies, thanks to the Inland Empire Wing of the Commemorative Air Force located in Riverside, California. In 1957, Lloyd Nolen, and a small group of former military pilots, purchased a P-51 Mustang. They were on a mission to preserve military aviation history. The CAF now has almost 13,000 members and a fleet of more than 165 aircraft representing more than 60 airframes.

Betsy’s Biscuit Bomber

This C-47 rolled off Douglas Aircraft’s production line in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma during the summer of 1944. The U.S. Army Air Force accepted her on September 4th, 1944. She served with the 9th Air Force in Europe, but was obviously too late to see service during D-Day. She remained in U.S. military until after the war. Her nickname, Betsy’s Biscuit Bomber, derives from her time taking part in the Berlin Air Lift during 1948. She also served with the Belgian, French and Israeli Air Forces, retiring from the latter in the early 90s. The aircraft was brought back to the USA in 1999, where she has since received a restoration back to airworthy condition as probably the lowest total airframe time C-47 known to exist (under 10,000 hours). Never having received a civilian conversion, she is one of the most authentic original C-47s currently flying. She is currently owned by the Gooney Bird Group in Templeton, California.

Miss Virginia

Miss Virginia rolled off Douglas Aircraft’s production line in Long Beach, California during the late summer of 1943, being delivered to the U.S. military on September 23rd. She remained based in the USA for her entire military service career, which lasted until her retirement in the early 1970s. She performed a variety of missions during those decades, including time with troop transport, special weapons center, research and development units and even the National Guard. The military retired the aircraft to the boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB near Tucson, Arizona in December, 1974, but she didn’t stay there long before sale onto the civilian market as N48065. The Wycliffe Bible Transport and Jungle Aviation and Radio Service ( JAARS) operated her for many years in the jungles of Colombia. In 1990, Dynamic Aviation of Bridgewater, Virginia purchased the aircraft and modified her for mosquito and gypsy moth spraying. They eventually retired her again in 1999. However, in 2010 they chose to restore the aircraft back into her military guise and named her Miss Virginia. Dynamic Aviation continue to fly Miss Virginia on the air show circuit.

Virginia Ann

The Virginia Ann was built at Douglas Aircraft’s factory in Long Beach, California, and was delivered to the U.S. Army Air Force on September 21st, 1943. She was initially assigned to the 12th Air Force in January, 1944, but transferred to 59th Squadron of the 61st Troop Carrier Group in the 9th Air Force shortly thereafter. On D-Day, based at RAF Barkston Heath in England, Colonel Willis Mitchell chose Virginia Ann to lead the 61st TCG with her four squadrons, the 14th, 15th, 53rd and 59th, 72 C-47s, on Serial 24. They were carrying elements of the 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne. Colonel Mitchell received the Purple Heart for injuries he sustained that early morning. Virginia Ann was involved in resupply and injured evacuation operations in the days following the June 6th invasion. The aircraft went on to participate in Operations Market Garden and Varsity. Following WWII, Virginia Ann went on to a life in the civilian sector as a transport. Mission Boston D-Day LLC, of Newport Beach, California have owned the historic aircraft since 2016, and she is presently painted in the same livery she wore back in June, 1944.

Flabob Express

This aircraft rolled of Douglas Aircraft’s production line in Long Beach, California during spring, 1943, being delivered to the U.S. military on May 12th. She was transferred a week later to Britain’s Royal Air Force as a Douglas Dakota, where she served as FD879 with No.24 Squadron, initially based at RAF Hendon. The aircraft was transferred to British forces in India on July 1st, 1943. She became the personal transport, nicknamed Orion, for General Claude Auchinleck, then serving as Commander in Chief of the Indian Army. Following the war, and Indian independence, and later partition in 1947, FD879 became part of the newly-formed Pakistan Air Force. In the early 1950s, FD879 was sold onto the civilian market, one of several similar airframes acquired by Lee Mansdorf. Shipped to the USA in April, 1952, the aircraft received the U.S. civil registration N2701A and a conversion into an executive transport soon after arrival. In 1955, the aircraft was exported to Canada where she passed through several owners before again returning to the USA in 1993 to become the Flabob Express, the signature aircraft of historic Flabob Airport in Riverside, California. It has served in a variety roles, and lately taken part in the educational programs for young people run by the Tom Wathen Center, owners of Flabob Airport. It is owned by Flabob Aviation Associates, a non-profit organization of experienced pilots and mechanics dedicated to keeping her flying.

Placid Lassie

Placid Lassie was built at Douglas Aircraft’s plant in Long Beach, California and delivered to the U.S. Army Air Forces in early 1943. They assigned her to the 74th Squadron, 434th Troop Carrier Group of IX Troop Carrier Command in England in preparation for D-Day.On that fateful day, June 6, 1944, Placid Lassie, along with 832 other C-47s towed WACO CG-4A and AirCo Hadrian cargo gliders and dropped more than 24,000 paratroopers over Normandy. Thereafter, Placid Lassie participated in additional WWII combat engagements including: Operation MARKET GARDEN in the Netherlands (September 17- 25 1944), Operation REPULSE – the relief of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge (December 23-25, 1944), Operation VARSITY (March 23, 1945). Like many of her brethren following WWII, the aircraft went through a number of civilian owners, plying her trade as a cargo plane. This historic C-47 is now owned and operated by the Tunison Foundation ,a nonprofit organization. Placid Lassie is still equipped to drop paratroopers and she carries her original wartime name. Lassie and her crew appear at aviation events across the United States each year, including EAA AirVenture Oshkosh Charitable gifts to the foundation keep this aircraft flying as a living-history tribute to the greatest generation.

Miss Montana

This aircraft rolled of Douglas Aircraft’s production line in Long Beach, California during the spring of 1944, being delivered to the U.S. Army Air Forces on May 6th. She served initially as part of Air Transport Command at the Specialized Night and Instrument Training School at Rosencrans Army Airfield in St. Joseph, Missouri. This was followed by a move to Memphis, Tennessee in June, 1945, but her stay there did not last long as she was retired for storage and eventual resale at the massive Walnut Ridge site in Arkansas. While she did not see combat in WWII, she has had a significant, although somewhat sobering civilian career, being one of the aircraft used to pioneer the concept of ‘smoke jumping’. Smoke jumpers are firefighters who parachute into the wilderness to combat forest fires. In fact, N24320 is the airplane that flew smokejumpers to fight the infamous Mann Gulch Fire near Helena, Montana in 1949. Sadly, twelve smokejumpers and one smoke chaser perished in this tragic episode, when they were overrun by the intense conflagration. Unfortunately the aircraft was involved in another tragedy while under the ownership of Johnson Flying Service. On December 22nd, 1954 the aircraft was forced to ditch in the Monongahela River near McKeesport, Pennsylvania due to lack of fuel. While no one was hurt during the initial accident, and the plane floated for long enough for everyone to exit the fuselage onto the wings, nine passengers and the pilot drowned trying to get to shore through the frigid waters. Amazingly, the airframe was salvaged, repaired, and returned to service. The aircraft has passed through several different operators since, and is now owned and displayed by the Museum of Mountain Flying in Missoula, Montana as a tribute to those smokejumpers who perished in the Mann Gulch Fire, and to all smokejumpers who continue to help protect America’s precious forests. Interestingly, Johnson Flying Service, which was a FBO in Missoula, Montana is also significantly represented at the Museum. Indeed, the FBO provided much of the training and first piloting opportunities for many museum members. N24320 was located by Museum founder Dick Komberec, a retired Delta Airlines pilot whose early flying experience included working for Johnson Flying Service. Komberec spotted N24320 near Atlanta, Georgia during one of his flights to that area, and the Museum undertook fundraising efforts to purchase her, which they accomplished in 2002. She has been a centerpiece at the museum ever since.

101st Airborne Tribute

This aircraft was originally ordered as a DST, or Douglas Sleeper Transport, in 1941. However, with the U.S. Army Air Forces took over her contract, impressing her for war service before her completion. She was delivered to the USAAF as C-47 41-18401 at Douglas Aircraft’s Factory in Long Beach, California on June 23rd, 1942 one of very few C-47s completed at this facility. The aircraft never became part of a formal military squadron however, heading straight into service with Pan American Airways on July 2nd, 1942. She served mostly out of North Africa and the Middle East at this time.

Following WWII, the aircraft was transferred to the French Air Force, joining them on November 20th, 1945 and serving faithfully for the next two decades before being sold on to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in January, 1967. There is some indication that the aircraft served with the Ugandan Air Force for a period before her retirement from the IDF in November, 1995.

The aircraft then appears as N155JM on the U.S. civil registry in August 1999, with Global Aircraft Industries of Phoenix, Arizona. The Ozark Airlines Museum in St.Louis, Missouri then acquired the DC-3 in October, 2001. Her present owner purchased the aircraft 3 or 4 years ago, being drawn to the aircraft because it still had the radio operator and navigators areas with bulkheads and a celestial dome. Over the years, almost all of these aircraft have had these items removed, so to find one so complete and authentic was quite astonishing. The owner commissioned Basler Turbo Conversions to bring the aircraft to Oshkosh for a restoration and have it completed for the D-day 75th. The restoration work was extensive. Over the span of a little over two years, the wings were almost completely rebuilt, the fuselage and center wing extensively repaired, while the fuel tanks and landing gear were also overhauled. All of the flight controls were overhauled and re-covered along with corresponding stabilizers. All of the fuel lines and electrical wiring were replaced and the hydraulic system was about 95% replaced. Modern avionics were installed in a new instrument panel that now includes a pair of Garmin 750 GPS along with Garmin transponders with ADSB, TCAS and SATCOM. All in all, Basler put close to 40,000 man hours into the restoration. The aircraft went to the paint shop in mid-January, 2019 and it was ready to go by March 7th.