FAA's DC-3 N34 is heading for a museum in Texas...

[Warbirdnerd]

The only airplane listed on the National Register of Historic Places is about to make its final stop at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport.

The Douglas DC-3 aircraft will leave Oklahoma City in early February and land at Rick Husband, where it will shut its engines down one last time after a career spanning seven decades.

The historic aircraft — affectionately known by its FAA N-Number, N34 — will be available for public viewing at the Texas Air & Space Museum, located at the Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, starting in March.

The N34 is one of two movable items on the nation’s National Register of Historic Places. The other is San Francisco’s famed cable cars.

The Federal Aviation Association announced Wednesday that this last workhorse DC-3 must go to a museum in order to make space for a new generation of aircraft that serve the nation.

The N34 is a monoplane aircraft built in May of 1945 for the Navy by the Douglas Aircraft Company in Oklahoma City. It was first used as a Navy airplane and later as a transport airplane associated with the Federal Aviation Administration’s safety inspection program.

Found it here:
http://m.amarillo.com/news/local-news/2014-01-30

[The Inspector]

The only airplane listed on the National Register of Historic Places is about to make its final stop at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport.

The Douglas DC-3 aircraft will leave Oklahoma City in early February and land at Rick Husband, where it will shut its engines down one last time after a career spanning seven decades.

The historic aircraft — affectionately known by its FAA N-Number, N34 — will be available for public viewing at the Texas Air & Space Museum, located at the Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, starting in March.

The N34 is one of two movable items on the nation’s National Register of Historic Places. The other is San Francisco’s famed cable cars.

The Federal Aviation Association announced Wednesday that this last workhorse DC-3 must go to a museum in order to make space for a new generation of aircraft that serve the nation.

The N34 is a monoplane aircraft built in May of 1945 for the Navy by the Douglas Aircraft Company in Oklahoma City. It was first used as a Navy airplane and later as a transport airplane associated with the Federal Aviation Administration’s safety inspection program.

Found it here:
http://m.amarillo.com/news/local-news/2014-01-30

Just off the right hand wingtip is the Murrow Federal Office building before-

[Pat Carry]

Interesting. I have never heard of this museum before. www.texasairandspacemuseum.org

[flightsimer]

Not to be a derby downer, but what was so important about this C-47 other than it was used by the Faa to have it on the national historic places register?

[mustangdriver]

Completed in 1945 near the end of World War II, the Navy used the Douglas DC-3, N34 at various worldwide locations as a transport airplane. Among the assignments were London, Rome, Naples, Paris, Algiers, Frankfort, Brussels, Oslo, Stockholm, Dublin, Cairo, Kuwait and Baghdad. Later converted to a R4D-6, it was assigned to the U.S. Navy Utility Transport Squadron Four (VRU-Four) from February 26, 1947 until March 1949 when it was detached from the squadron and returned to the U.S. On April 8, 1947, N34 nosed over in the mud while being taxied out of the only parking area available in London, and both engines had to be changed. While not officially assigned to the Berlin Airlift (1948-1949), it is highly probable that N34 flew into Berlin in support of Operation VITTLES, as most airplanes in the area during that time were pressed into support of the airlift operation. Sometime prior to 1956 the airplane was put into storage by the Navy.

The Navy loaned the airplane, along with four other DC-3s, to the Civil Aviation Administration (CAA), later the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The initial FAA assignment as a flight inspection airplane was to the Southwest Region in Fort Worth, Texas, and later to various other FAA regions. This airplane was operational and photographed with its first CAA livery paint scheme on the ramp at Oakland in August 1958.

It flew with the FAA until 1983. Then was restored and started flying again from 85 till current day.

This is all from the site on the airplane at the park service.

[Steve Rister]

Sad to hear of N34's non-flying status to come. That's complemented by an L-10E going to the
Museum of Flight, I believe in Seattle. I flew in an L-10 at the Amarillo Airshow that I think was
owned by a Doctor in Ft. Worth. Same plane? Anyway, I hope as a future player in warbird/vintage
aircraft to make a difference in keeping the birds airworthy and flying.

Stephen

[aerovin]

I can add that a lot of the impetus for having the airplane registered as a National Historic Place many years ago was to prevent the airplane from being stripped out and sent through the normal government surplus disposal process. This DC-3 was the last of a large fleet numbering in excess of sixty that basically established the nation's airway system by commissioning most of the VORTACs that were put in place in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, and a majority of the original ILSs also. The CAA significantly modified its fleet of DC-3s (including 40 Navy R4Ds as this airplane was) with extensive fuselage rework to accommodate the flight inspection gear as well as more powerful engines (R-1830-94s) and beefed up electrical systems. The CAA/FAA DC-3s served from the late 1940s through the mid-1970s, and N34 was indeed the last of that large fleet still controlled by the FAA. Its last assigned duty was in a training role and was retired the first time in the early 1980s and slated for disposal. There was a cadre of FAA people who wanted the airplane to remain in its flight inspection configuration and they lobbied hard in the mid-1980s to keep the airplane flyable as part of the FAA mission to promote aviation. It was repainted (sadly, to me) in a mid-1950s CAA paint scheme (never actually worn operationally by this airplane) and it has been flown on occasion for periods in the last thirty years, making major airshows like Oshkosh and Sun N Fun. I would venture to say that tens of thousands of people have freely toured through the airplane over the years at airshows around the country, introducing a bunch of young people to airplanes and helping to explain the FAA mission. It has also been "retired" and stored several times during that period as budgets and philosophies have changed. It was last pulled out of storage to support the 2003 Centennial of Flight effort and flew seriously for a few years afterwards, but has largely been in "flyable" storage at Oklahoma City for the past three or four years as a decision was being made about where it should go. Final parking proposals that saw the airplane stripped out and painted as something other than N34 were rejected, and it is nice to see the airplane going where it is going. It is indeed a time capsule for anyone who has been inside. It has not been restored, but is largely configured as it was after going through the CAA shops in 1958 or 1959. It was a hard working airplane for the CAA/FAA for 20 years plying the airways (albeit very slowly) and I for one am happy there are elements of the FAA that appreciate that this airplane has some historical significance.