Fantasy of Flight Adding a Combat Vet C-47 to the stable

[Warbirdnerd]

Kermit and some of his mechanics have been in England for the last week or so preparing N1944A for a trans-Atlantic flight to its new home in Florida. You can follow their progress on FoF's Facebook page...

[JohnB]

Good news.

C-47/DC-3s have been so ubiquitous for so long I was afraid that we'd take them for granted and one day we (or a generation or two in the future) would decide to add them to warbiord collections only to find they were all gone.

[Pathfinder]

She is a a true D-Day vet....not a repaint!

43-15211 was the D-Day mount of Maj. Cecil Petty of 92TCS 439TCG. She was Chalk 47...right wingman (#2) to the serial leader of Serial 12 carrying elements of 2nd Battalion 506 PIR. As Chalk 47 she would have been a few planes in front of the ill-fated Meehan plane depicted in the Band of Brothers D-Day episode.

You can see a photo of Maj Petty in the cockpit of 211 here:

http://www.footnote.com/image/#32040693

Warbird Registry is unclear on the numeric pedigree. They seem to think 211 is a repaint? They indicate it was delivered as another a/c....does not make sense.

Serial #: 43-15211
Construction #: 19677
Civil Registration:
N3239W
N5211A
N1944A
Model: C-47A-80-DL
Name: None
Status: Airworthy
Last info: 2007
History:
Delivered to USAAF as 44-76965, 19??.
Delivered to Norwegian AF as 315211, ????.
Delivered to Danish AF as 68-683 (later K-683), ????.
Registered as N3239W by ????, ????.
Registered as N5211A by ????, ????.
Wings Venture Ltd, Greenwich, CT, April-1997-2007
- Registered as N1944A.
- Base in UK.

I think 211 as returning to the US is the real deal! No question about it!

[Mike]

A shame that yet another flyer seems destined to become ground bound at Polk City

[gary1954]

A shame that yet another flyer seems destined to become ground bound at Polk City

when I read who was bringing her home, I thought the same as you. Bring it home and park it, never to be flown again.
Must be going by the Howard Hughes handbook

[Jerry O'Neill]

Great to hear she's coming home!
It was once part of the VAC trio of C-47's from Denmark, and later it was operated out of Danbury, CT and flown by my buddy Nick Tramatano.
Jerry

[P51Mstg]

My money is bet on it gets parked once it hits FL and doesn't fly anymore.

Mark H

[Lightning]

Howdy All

FOF have stated on Facebook that it wont be mothballed !

Lightning

[Warbirdnerd]

Me thinks someone from FoF reads the WIX... ;o)
Looking forward to seeing this Bird in a couple of weeks at Oshkosh..
From the FoF Facebook Page:

“Rumors of its death have been greatly exaggerated” - N1944A is Coming Home to Fly!by Fantasy of Flight on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 5:07pm
Despite popular rumors, one of the most legendary World War II aircraft flying, the C-47 Dakota N1944A, will not be put in mothballs. In fact, this beloved hero is coming home from a long stay in Europe to take a place of pride in the flying aircraft collection of Kermit Weeks, owner of Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, Florida.


Of the remaining collectable World War II aircraft still flying, very few actually saw duty. And of those, even fewer have the war record of N1944A:

D-Day Invasion
Operation Market Garden
Battle of the Bulge
Crossing of the Rhine
Repatriation of POWs at war’s end
Its homecoming will follow a North Atlantic crossing, flown by award-winning pilot Weeks and Verne Jobst, who has 8,000 hours in DC-3s. Making up the crew of the trans-Atlantic flight will be Glen Moss (flown two crossings, one in a DC-3 and last month in a Cessna), who is consulting on the flight, and Fantasy of Flight Aircraft Department staffers Andy Salter and Wayne Root, both of whom bring vital mechanical skills to the

operation.



The route will include elements of the “Great Circle Route,” but according to Weeks, they may deviate slightly to what he jokingly calls the “Great Scenic Route.” N1944A will make its Homecoming Debut at AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where it will be displayed for a few months, before flying south to Fantasy of Flight.



Once the aircraft leaves the UK, Weeks has promised to provide updates, photos, and observations, which will be posted on Fantasy of Flight’s Facebook page as they occur. “Of course,” reminds Weeks with a laugh, “This all relies on the technology. There will probably not be a 3G signal available in some of our locations.”



Trans-Atlantic ferrying of significant vintage aircraft is becoming rarer and rarer these days, taking place only every 5 or 10 years. Weeks’ only previous ferrying across the Atlantic took place in 1993, when he brought his Short Sunderland to the USA. He sees this flight as one of the last of its kind and certainly one of the most significant.

Last edited by Warbirdnerd on Thu Jul 14, 2011 8:35 am, edited 2 times in total.

[P51Mstg]

To call Kermit's collection a "flying collection" is a bit of a misnomer. He has several "flying aircraft", a lot of aircraft that could fly with some work, and a lot of aircraft that are not going to fly in his lifetime.

If he wanted to do something significant with that money, well then he should have stuck it in the B-24 and flew it. Or take some of his own aircraft off the field and let the world see them elsewhere. He actually got a good response from the crowd when he brought the P-40 to TICO this spring.

He may own a lot of airframes, but there are better collections elsewhere. Obviously Planes of Fame in Chino and Mr. Yegan's collection in VA Beach. Mr. Yegan is a super guy and all of it flies (well except the KingCobra which is pretty well rotten). If Kermit wanted to do some real flying demonstrations, then he needs to ENTRUST his aircraft to some other pilots. Hard to do a formation flyby with only one pilot for all the bigger planes.

I do understand his position as sole pilot (I paid for it and if I bend it, its my fault), but lets not be claiming world's biggest collection, if they are not flying. Its kind of like being at Evergreen and the volunteers tell me about the P-38 as one of the only flying ones in the world. Hard to remember last time it saw air under its wheels.

Well, at least Andy is going. I've talked to him and he is a great guy.

Good luck with it Kermit and watch for traffic on the flight since that crossing isn't as rare as your PR people would like the world to think it is.

Mark H

[gary1954]

Howdy All

FOF have stated on Facebook that it wont be mothballed !

Lightning

Right! it will be left to rot, corrode into nothingness, become granular dust...poof...shes gone

[Jollygreenslugg]

If Kermit Weeks wants to buy as many warbirds as possible, and store them in a shed, he's quite free to do so.

His money, his aircraft. He doesn't 'owe' it to anyone to return any of them to flight.

The bloke who pays the bills, calls the shots. He may get some of them flying, he may not. As they're his toys, none of us can criticise him or make demands.

If he wants to bring it home and park it, never to be flown again, that's his right.

Cheers,
Matt

[P51Mstg]

Personally I don't care if Kermit BBQs sides of beef over a burning B-24, but if he says he's getting something to fly and its a "flyer", well, it should fly. There are enough places with parked aircraft.

If Kermit's granddaddy wasn't so sharp, he'd be flying someone else's airplanes right now.

Mark H

[Mike]

If Kermit Weeks wants to buy as many warbirds as possible, and store them in a shed, he's quite free to do so.

His money, his aircraft. He doesn't 'owe' it to anyone to return any of them to flight.

The bloke who pays the bills, calls the shots. He may get some of them flying, he may not. As they're his toys, none of us can criticise him or make demands.

If he wants to bring it home and park it, never to be flown again, that's his right.

Cheers,
Matt

By the same token, if he wishes to buy up the world's entire population of, say, B-17s and melt them down for beer cans, that's also his right.

However, that does not stop any of us being able to make our views known on here, on what is, after all, a DISCUSSION forum.

I for one am sad that an aircraft I've had the pleasure of seeing fly on several occasions seems destined to be retired to a museum. In the same way that I was sad to see another combat veteran C-47 based in Europe, 'Fifi Kate', recently end up going to Columbia as a freight hauler, being wrecked soon afterwards (although I believe she's been patched up and is flying again now)

[ZRX61]

The bloke who pays the bills, calls the shots. He may get some of them flying, he may not. As they're his toys, none of us can criticise him or make demands.

Matt

Oh really? Perhaps you're not familiar with what is generally known as "opinion"? Anyone can criticize ANYONE they want..... Unless the govt controls your thoughts in Australia?