The C-47: The most important aircraft of WWII?

The Air Zoo is a world-class, Smithsonian-affiliated aerospace and science museum, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with over 100 air and space artifacts, inspiring interactive exhibits, full-motion flight simulators, indoor amusement park rides, a theater and over 100 education programs!

[AirZoo]

BTW folks, Euan's Great Grandad eventually escaped from the Nazis and spent the rest of the war hiding out in the European countryside.

Another L for Nazi Germany...

[ZeRyFryGuy]

My great grandfather was a paratrooper who dropped into Normandy for the invasion

[dopium]

My dad was a radio op on a c47 “goonie bird” in Vietnam.. crazy that these planes were in use for so long

[PlutoProtogen]

The c47/dc3 is one of the most importaint aircraft ever made, they are still in some use today which shows alot about how much of a beast they really were. Pby cat is another close second as far as beast mode

[jayztoob]

What a great aircraft! I'd fly on a DC-3 or C-47 again if I had a chance. I well remember the uphill climb, and then falling into to my always comfortable seat, and the struggle to get OUT of the seat at the flights end. One advantage to the "climb" was that there had to be plenty of legroom so that the passengers could get in and out while on the ground.

[brianmccarthy]

There are still some DC-3's and C-47's still flying in remote parts of the world. In the 1990's we worked on failure analysis for some spare parts for planes in the labs at Douglas Aircraft Company, McDonnell Douglas Corp. in Long Beach, CA. They were very well designed and built and are very tough aircraft.

[nexotonian]

My great-granduncle was deployed to the Phillipines and disobeyed orders to surrender, and was eventually captured. He then went on to survive the Bataan Death March, and was freed in 1945 in the end of the war.

[K_Guy]

My great grandfather was a royal engineer and landed in a glider as he was too old to jump from a plane, he helped get the troops out of Arnhem afterwards.

[francisvantuyle]

Notice the white bubble behind cockpit. Where the pilots sit in the cocpit. That was a clear bubble for the navigator who used a Sextant to navigate. A Sextant is a mechanical device used to take measurements of the stars and sun. My Father made sure I knew how to use a Sextant we had one on our home growing up. He taught me how to use a lesatic campus and to read military maps. Later in the Viet Nam war I was a Helicopter pilot who could perform dead reconing navigation. As I had read and memorized the maps before my flights. Thank you dad. You saved a lot of great men's lives.

[justindunlap]

Last fall I saw a dc3 taking off from the local smoke jumper base during last year's fire season. It's a gorgeous aircraft.

[mrs]

My gramps was in a glider during market garden AA fire blew off his baby makers and was held prisoner until the war was over luckily he adopted my pops years later

[robertkelly]

They are also incredibly loud. I heard one fly overhead before and my god. There’s footage of a C-47, spitfire, Lancaster and hurricane flying in formation and you can still hear it over 6 merlin engines. It’s mad

[jackschoonover]

My great uncle was the pilot of That's all brother on D-Day, the first C-47 to enter french airspace and drop paratroopers.

[legotrain]

I WISH I COULD GO!
the dc-3/c-47 are my favorite planes of all time

[Leocraver]

Fun fact : there was a Chinese pilot over load the dc-3 with 80 passenger to escape from the japanese advance, later he come to know that one of the passenger was actually Jimmy Doolittle coming back from his famous raid.
(His name is Moon Chin)

[crimsonpts]

Out of the C-47, the AC-47 Spooky was developed as well, which is basically just the C-47 version of an AC-130. Funnily enough, a version of the AC-130 was named "Spooky II"

[noahsawesomevids]

This plane was also used to pick up down airmen behind enemies lines in Yugoslavia . There’s a book on it called The Forgotten 500

[TheArklyte]

Not only was it serving on all fronts thanks to lend lease, but also thanks to licensed production as well. Soviets licensed C-47 even before WWII as it was best civilian utility aircraft on the market. During the war soviet produced versions served alongside their leased brothers, in fact some planes were even sent in component kits or just as engines because soviets had other noncritical components waiting in the factory.
They also created few of the armed versions of it. Everybody knows about Vietnam era gunship, but few had heard of soviet variants with defensive turret on top or the one that was equipped with external bomb bay and could drop up to a 1000kg of external load, be it bombs or equipment containers.

[timdevries]

I saw it in the back WWII room yesterday but didn't have enough time to read everything about it. Have to come back when I have more time.

[rickmaldoo]

More importantly that prop will need a ladder for me to have unrestricted access to spin it vigorously