Cubs2jets wrote:
.I'm not an expert (though I sometimes play one on the internet). I may well be wrong. I "challenged" StangStung in an effort to gain more knowledge.
I accept that Vintage Wings owns a C-53 based in Beach City, OH. I believe they have used a bit of artistic license to apply the nose art Beach City Baby on their C-53 (their aircraft, their choice).
I do not believe the aircraft in the color picture is a C-53. No astrodome. Civillian DC-3 type carb air intakes (Unlike any C-53 pictures, but certainly inconclusive). Straight paint demarcation line (again inconclusive, but not consistant with other C-53 pics).
I honestly can't read the first word in the nose art. Is it really Beach?
An interesting exercise in detective work. I'll leave it up to someone else to query Vintage Wings...
C2j
Cubs -
Here's the thing though - your own picture earlier in the thread for a "wavy" demarcation shows an aircraft with the shorter civilian intakes and no astrodome either, so is that a C-53 or were you just using it to show a pre-war/early war version of the livery that was also used on the C-53? As well, the astrodome was routinely added and removed as needed to aircraft. It was considered to be an unnecessary addition on aircraft not carrying a navigator and easily removed, so most C-47s and C-53s spent at least some of the war without them.
Also, here's pics of the airplane in 1948 while in Danish civilian service with the short intakes, some of which are on Vintage Wings' website as well -
http://www.oy-reg.dk/register/1845.html