My Favourite Plane and Why

[John Carrodus]

During WW2 in the South Pacific my dear old dad was about to clamber onto an RNZAF DC3 and got tossed off at the last minute for some reason. The DC3 was  never seen again. Coincidence? Or is there is no such thing?

I have recently built a 1/72 scale plastic model with my youngest grandson. It dawned on me that this aircraft is possibly the most useful, well designed, robust yet graceful with swept wings and tail with a streamlined fuselage.

Many still fly today and will continue no doubt well into the future. I believe there is a company retrofitting them with turboprops.

A marvelous piece of timeless form and function - pure genius

[Tim Wescott]

More than one -- here's the top of the search when I tried: https://www.baslerturbo.com/

Search on "DC-3 turboprop conversion".

It would make a nice scale subject, either with the original engines or the turboprops.

[GERALD WIMMER]

Hello If I owned a full size plane it would be my favorite because I own it. But dreaming of the most beautiful plane it would be the Martin Mars because there is so much of it and it looks nice!

Regards Gerald

[Dave Hull]

Here's a taste of some DC-3....well, C-47 actually.



Early on in the covid battle, when things got bad in Los Angeles, a group of pilots/owners decided to take a group of aircraft on an air tour all around the area. It just so happened that my house was under the flight path. When I heard more radial engines than I could count, I ran outside to look. Among a bunch of warbirds were a number of DC-3s which thundered over the rooftops extremely low in formation. An exceptional sight!

Dave

[john e. holliday]

You were so lucky Dave.  As graceful as these pilots made the Plane look in take off and landing, I wonder how it got the nicname Gooney Bird.   As I don't remember a Gooney Bird being graceful in take off or landing (the real bird).   The C-47/DC-3 were great looking planes.

[John Hammonds]

A tenuous link but I'll throw my vote at the Gooney Bird, I used to spend far too much of my younger life flying combat sims and as I'm a nice guy used to operate "Snafu's Troop Taxi" and spent most of my online life flying C47's both on para and rescue missions. Its "Gooney Bird" monica was apparently because while a dream on take off they didn't actually want to land. I knew a display pilot (Long since deceased sadly) who confirmed on landing the last 5ft or so was a nightmare, they they simply wouldn't land like any normal aircraft and you almost had to stall them to get them firmly stuck to the tarmac. So just like the real "Gooney Bird" gracefulness on landing was not one of its  strong points.

TTFN
John.