DC-3 in Ottawa, IL

[Dennis7423]

All-

I was out in Marseilles, IL helping with flood recovery efforts there as part of a disaster relief team called Team Rubicon (made up of veterans... really an awesome opportunity!) and we were being housed in Ottawa, IL at a place called SkyDive Chicago. On site at their private airfield was this DC-3, which they used to use for drops, but was pushed into a tree by high winds some years ago and damaged. It has sunk into the ground by a foot or so, but appeared to be mostly intact and in pretty decent shape. Anyone else shed some more light on this bird, or someone wanna buy it? I bet they would part with it, as it is just collecting... well, whatever an airplane collects just sitting in a grass field in Illinois. It does not have the large cargo style door on the left side, but rather the single, swing-down civilian airliner type door. It also has single row radials, which indicates it as a DC-3 and not a C-47, correct?






















- Dennis S.
Westminster, CO USA

[The Inspector]

Apparently always been a -3 and not impressed during WW2 (DC-3's with WRIGHTS and/or right hand doors were noted as something else C-51, C-49,C-53, etc). I'm assuming this is a left hand door so it's not (and isn't listed as..) an AMERICAN AIRLINES, UNITED, or other original customer as they used r/h airstair door, NWA(not the rap group), TWA, DELTA are possible.
l/n 2247 original registration NC 15596, then N 408D, FAA lists it as a DC-3 G202A, but ABCD says it's a DC-3 201D. it's all about what's under the floors and in the wings as far as corrosion, I believe DC-3's used magnesium for floor beams.
She looks pretty forlorn- I'd love having a cockpit seat

[Chris Brame]

whatever an airplane collects just sitting in a grass field in Illinois.

They usually collect a ton of wasp nests. I admire your nerve; I wouldn't have climbed into that thing unless the temp was below freezing... that was the only time Earl Reinert's planes could be worked on.

TWA, DELTA are possible.

Quick Google search says it was one of Eddie Rickenbacker's Great Silver Fleet (Eastern Airlines). More history here (scroll halfway down):
https://ssl.alpha-prm.jp/dc3pub.com/filename28.html

[vernicator]

Apparently this was one of the DC-3 that took part in the big Expo '86 flypast in Vancouver, British Columbia out of Abbotsford. Here's a picture taken at the time.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Douglas-DC-3-201D/1178062/L/&sid=9bc1fda248824b4d5902f608f5fc6068

[The Inspector]

Apparently this was one of the DC-3 that took part in the big Expo '86 flypast in Vancouver, British Columbia out of Abbotsford. Here's a picture taken at the time.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Douglas-DC-3-201D/1178062/L/&sid=9bc1fda248824b4d5902f608f5fc6068

Chris and Vern,
Thanks for the additional info. I flew in EXPO 86 in SALAIRS N3FY which I think is between the props in the AIRLINERS picture.

[pjpahs]

Per FAA registry ,N408D , serial # 2247, model DC3-G202A, engines-Wright, certificate expires 10/31/2014, owner -Big Sky Air Inc., Dallas ,Texas. I think I can count 9 cylinders, Wright 1820's.

[vernicator]

Per FAA registry ,N408D , serial # 2247, model DC3-G202A, engines-Wright, certificate expires 10/31/2014, owner -Big Sky Air Inc., Dallas ,Texas. I think I can count 9 cylinders, Wright 1820's.

The short cowl length from the front to the cowl flaps gives it away as Wright 1820's. I always much preferred the "fluffier" sound of the Pratts with the 14 cyclinders.

[The Inspector]

Per FAA registry ,N408D , serial # 2247, model DC3-G202A, engines-Wright, certificate expires 10/31/2014, owner -Big Sky Air Inc., Dallas ,Texas. I think I can count 9 cylinders, Wright 1820's.

The short cowl length from the front to the cowl flaps gives it away as Wright 1820's. I always much preferred the "fluffier" sound of the Pratts with the 14 cyclinders.

Surplus B-17 cowls?

[Rod Schneider]

Per FAA registry ,N408D , serial # 2247, model DC3-G202A, engines-Wright, certificate expires 10/31/2014, owner -Big Sky Air Inc., Dallas ,Texas. I think I can count 9 cylinders, Wright 1820's.

The short cowl length from the front to the cowl flaps gives it away as Wright 1820's. I always much preferred the "fluffier" sound of the Pratts with the 14 cyclinders.

Surplus B-17 cowls?

Could possibly be, (I think some Wright powered DC-3's do use a B-17 firewall forward package), but the cowls don't look quite right for B-17 parts. There appears to be several round features (holes?) near the cowl flaps along the aft edge of the speed rings that are not seen on B-17's, and the cowls are "clocked" incorrectly -- on a B-17, the cowl seams are at 12:00, 4:00, and 8:00. These are at 2:00, 6:00, and 10:00.

[Steve Nelson]

Being an actual DC-3 built for Eastern she likely came from the factory with Wrights, in which case the cowls may be original equipment. The Eastern DC-3 in the NASM also has Wright engines, and every period pic I could find of Eastern machines shows them with Wrights..so I assume the airline ordered all of their DC-3s that way. The CWH Dakota is also a former Eastern DC-3, and has Wright R-1820s as well.

Sad to see her rotting away like that. Original DC-3s are much more rare than military C-47s. There were only 600 civilian airliners built, compared to over 10,000 of the military versions.

SN

[Clay Barnett]

I remember visiting this airplane several times at airshows around the Dallas/Fort Worth area as a kid in the 90's. My uncle (who is now unfortunately deceased) was a pilot and flew with the Lady Luck to various functions such as Skydive trips to Chicago and Oshkosh. At the time, it belonged to a skydiving outfit based out of Terrell, TX (or at least that's where the guys were from that I met). I wish I had more info on the plane, and if Uncle Dave was still with us I'm sure he'd fill in all of the details. I just happened to find this via google search when I happened to think about it. It is quite sad to see the state it's in.

[Ron Johnson]

I found this site searching for the tail number of this plane and thought you guys might be interested to know that it has been made airworthy again and took off from Ottawa yesterday on a ferry flight to Florida. According to an article in the local paper, once it gets to Florida it will have more work done and may be used as a commuter plane. I really thought this old girl would end up getting scrapped, last year on the 4th of July they jumped a motor home over it!
Here's a video of the take off and flyover:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 1840714454
Here's the story in the paper, if it asks you to answer a survey there's an option at the bottom to skip it:
http://www.mywebtimes.com/news/local/cl ... d0055.html
If you don't want to click on the links, search for "Skydive Chicago" on facebook and they have videos and updates on their page.

[Dennis7423]

Thanks for the update Ron! Glad to see she made it and wasn't scrapped or still sitting there

- Dennis S.
Westminster, CO USA

[Nathan]

glad to see it flying. that was a big chunk of damage to it.

[Ron Johnson]

Yeah I was pretty surprised when they said it was going to be repaired and flown out, to my untrained eye it looked too far gone. I was watching the take off live on facebook and then a few minutes later it actually flew right over me which was pretty cool. I saw that it made it to Florida but haven't seen any other updates.