Warbird Information Exchange

FREMONT -- Skip Honsperger stood in a wet patch of grass on a sunny Friday afternoon at Fremont Airport, fiddling with a rusty padlock securing the door to a large airplane that sits next to the airport's runway.

Though the Douglas DC-3 has seen better days, a few dedicated aviation buffs are sharing a vision of what the plane could become, and are asking for help in restoring the retired military aircraft to its original glory.

"We are going to make it historically correct," airport owner Rex Damschroder said. "The school kids could come out here and go through the plane and really see what it was like to be a paratrooper during the D-Day invasion."

Local historian Pat Smith said he has researched that specific plane's history and found it was involved in several missions during World War II.

Smith said the plane was part of the U.S. Army Air Corps' 314th troop cargo group, which was attached to the 62nd troop cargo squadron and carried both ground troops and paratroopers into several countries during the war.

"The 62nd TSC was involved in all the major campaigns in the Mediterranean and European theaters," he said. "It dropped the 82nd Airborne into Italy, participated in attacks on Sicily and took part in the D-Day invasion. It is very much a war veteran."

After the plane's war service, Smith said, it was bought by the former Frontier Airlines and was used as a passenger plane for about 11 years, and then for another seven years for Southern Airways.

A few volunteers, including Honsperger and Jack Batesole, have been slowly working to restore the airplane to the condition it was in before the D-Day invasion. Honsperger said the restoration will be a long road, but was thrilled when some cleaning and repairs to one of the plane's twin 1,200-horsepower Pratt & Whitney engines prompted it to spurt out some black smoke and start up.

"It sounds like the Harley of the skies," he said of the noise the 14-cylinder radial engine makes when it runs. "It took about 40 hours of work to get it going. It just turned over a few times and just took off."

Damschroder, also a state representative, plans to pull the DC-3 onto the taxiway near the airport's frontage on Ohio 53 on June 4, grill some hot dogs and open the plane for tours. The event, which is set to run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and has a rain day set on June 5, is meant to attract anyone interested in volunteering for the restoration effort.

"The hope is to try to get some people interested in volunteering," Damschroder said. "If we clean this up and take good care of it, maybe she will still be around for the 100th anniversary of D-Day in 2044."

The airport also has a big anniversary, its 50th, coming up in 2013. Damschroder said he would love to have the restoration done in time for the airport's anniversary air show.

Honsperger pointed out areas where birds had gotten inside the fuselage and nested and others where animals had torn off parts of the fabric covering its wings. He said the plane could be visibly restored and ready to taxi down the runway within a matter of weeks if funds were unlimited. As it stands now, he said he has no idea how long the project might take.

"First we need to research what kind of products we can clean it with," he said. "It just needs some tender, loving care."

Batesole, in addition to bringing his expertise as an aviation maintenance inspector, provides another invaluable piece of the puzzle, one of his historic Jeeps. The DC-3 has no batteries to start its engine and runs on a 24-volt electric system, which very few other vehicles have.

Batesole's Jeep will likely be used during the June 4 event to power the plane's electric system, until volunteers hook it up to batteries.

Damschroder plans for the finished product to have the same paint job -- complete with invasion stripes -- it had when carrying paratroopers to the battlefield during the D-Day invasion.

"D-Day will always be a big part of our history," he said. "I think it will be a really cool thing when it's finished."

Honsperger said aviation maintenance experts are welcome to apply for the effort, but said they will need as many amateur volunteers as they can get.

"There will be plenty of grunt work," he said. "There is a lot to do yet."

Great news! I use to skydive out of Sugar Alpha when she was owned by Steve Moran (Died in a T-28 crash around 85-86). She was located at FDR Airport in Warm Springs, GA until shortly after Steve's death. It then disappeared from the airport.

It was registered to Gene Damschroder 9-16-88. I know it hasn't flown in about 15 years so maybe it's been sitting in Fremont all that time.