The Douglas (Santa Monica) DC-3 Monument Park

[bdk]

Just forwarding this on- I have no involvement with this project.

http://www.ecfboeingca.org/DC3Monument/WebSite/home.htm

[Michel Lemieux]

Wow...nice looking DC-3.

Never seen a DC-3 or Super DC-3 with prop spinners before.

Is this one for looks only ? I wonder if these could have prevented proper cooling in some cases on the ground

[n5151ts]

...woo hoo....the FAA is grinning ear to ear right now

[51fixer]

Another historic artifact on a pole.
Gee, I saw that back in the 80's parked in a hangar at Burbank IIRC.
It was a neat aircraft but I think Atlantic Richfield didn't want it to fly again.
Rich

[tulsaboy]

It's neat to have such a monument. And probably, with the immense number of DC-3s available at the moment, including scores that are still being scrapped (three in Missouri last month) it's probably not all that big of a loss. Sad, to be sure. But still hard to compare to having a corsair or a p-82 sitting on a pole. Hmmmmm.......

kevin

[Robbie Roberts]

What a HORRIBLE thing to do to an airplane! Haven't they ever heard of FIBERGLASS? Frikin mo-rons.

Robbie

[Jerry O'Neill]

Don't call me to help you get it down in 30-40 years!
I already saved one from the pole dancers and I'll be about 80 by then!
Not a great thing to do to the greatest aircraft ever built!
Jerry

[JDK]

Cost of an un-airworthy C-47 = ?

Cost to make a C-47 fibreglass replica = ?

Cost of planning for futureproofing = ?

You do the maths.

[Fouga23]

What's with the spinners?

[Nathan]

What a HORRIBLE thing to do to an airplane! Haven't they ever heard of FIBERGLASS? Frikin mo-rons.

Robbie

I was thinking the samething. Idiots!


Just becasue the DC-3/C-47 are a "dime a dozen" does not mean they should be less important and strung up on a pole like some exotic floor drum. In 10 year that baby will be trash. Maroons!

[Brad]

What a HORRIBLE thing to do to an airplane! Haven't they ever heard of FIBERGLASS? Frikin mo-rons.

Robbie

Make up your mind Robbie. A while ago you wrote this..

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... ht=#229097

I think you should be asking why the AF took a FLYABLE P-38 and mounted it on a pole in NJ ?

Because the base McGuire AFB is named for a P-38 ace- second highest scoring ace form the Pacific. It is the only 2nd WW aircraft on the base as far as I can tell. They have one of the later C-54s- (I think it is a C-128 or something, rumored to be the one Elvis came home on) an F-4, an F-100 and one of the few surviving C-141s.

Not all birds will fly again- so leave the USAF P-38(known as "Pudgy") at McGuire alone- at least it is still around, and not blown up! It is actually a pretty nice gateway, and the aircraft is maintained in polished condition- at least it isn't overcoated with fifteen layers of paint and corrosion, as some aircraft I see on display are.

Robbie

What's more rare? A P-38 or a Goony Bird?

[bdk]

Douglas DC-3 Monument Park Opens



More photos here: http://www.ecfboeingca.org/DC3Monument/ ... /index.htm

More than 1,000 active and retired Douglas heritage employees and their families convened at the Santa Monica Airport on Saturday, March 23, to participate in the unveiling of a new monument park honoring Donald W. Douglas, the company he founded, and his famed DC-3 airplane.

The public site, located at Airport Ave. and Donald Douglas Loop Road, offers a restored DC-3 elevated on pedestals, a life-sized statue of Donald W. Douglas and his favorite dog “Bar,” a Founders’ Wall listing more than 1,000 contributors to the project, and kiosks with information on the history of the Douglas Aircraft Company. A new Museum of Flying is slated to open adjacent to the monument in 2010.

At the opening day celebration, Victoria Douglas Thoreson unveiled the statue of her grandfather, along with the aid of its creator, famed sculptor Yossi Govrin. Also in attendance were such former Douglas and McDonnell Douglas senior executives as Bob Johnson, Jim Worsham, Jim Dorrenbacher, Jim McMillan, Jack Crosthwait, Gene Dubil, Roger
Schaufele, and Jim Phillips.

Donald W. Douglas founded his aircraft manufacturing empire in Santa Monica just 17 years after the Wright brothers’ initial flight in 1903. In 1924, his Douglas World Cruisers became the first aircraft to circumnavigate the globe. In 1933, he introduced the famed DC (Douglas Commercial) series of passenger airplanes that revolutionized air travel. During the World War II, Douglas manufacturing plants in Santa Monica, El Segundo, Long Beach, Chicago, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City produced more than 30,000 military planes and employed more than 160,000 workers. By the time of its merger with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967, the Douglas Company had delivered more than 43,000 commercial and military aircraft.

The Douglas DC-3 Monument Park is open and free to the public during daylight hours. Funding for the project came from the Douglas White Oaks Ranch Trust, which is administered by the Employees Community Fund of Boeing California; the City of Santa Monica; David Price, chairman of the Santa Monica Museum of Flying and donor of the restored
DC-3; and active and retired employees of the Douglas Aircraft Company, McDonnell Douglas and Boeing.

[Chris]

Is the airframe airworthy first of all? If it is badly corroded to the point of being astronomically expensive to return to the air, then I would MUCH rather see it cleaned up and put up on a pole than sitting in a field somewhere rotting away. I would guess that there are probably a hundred DC-3/C-47s rotting away somewhere because no one wants to do anything with them. At least this monument serves to honor the aviation history of Santa Monica with a classic but hardly rare aircraft. I think this is a totally different story than lets say the B-23 going to HAG. I hope they come up with the funding and labor to put it back in the air. Not all old aircraft are destined to ever fly again. Lets at least give them a proper place to roost and not cut them up for scrap.