The Douglas DC-3: The Plane That Flew For Almost A Century | The DC-3 Story | Spark

June 6th 1944 for many the Normandy invasion is seen as the defining day of World War II yet even now little is known about the role 850 transport planes played on D-Day they were critical to the Allies success now the DC3 is a bit of a jaal and hide aircraft because it has the civilian life but it also has this military life during the second world war the DC3 helped the Allied Forces secure victory in the Cold War it saved West Berlin from a Soviet takeover had kind of for we were not afraid of these candy bombers we all knew that they had come to help us in Vietnam however the Savior plane became a vicious weapon sent in by KN following her military career this chameleon of the Skies transforms herself once more she becomes an airliner again and the grand lady of postwar Aviation the DC 3's many names reflect its long and storied history sky sleeper Dakota Candy Bomber and c47 it has flown for decades I mean what other aircraft can you say has flown for nearly a century and continues to fly and no other plane in the world has been built in such numbers the DC3 was launched in California in 1936 and in just 10 years more than 16,000 of them were produced in the US it revolutionized air travel sidelining the railroad for longdistance [Music] transport the DC3 is main competitor was a German plane the u52 had an aluminium alloy [Music] structure it was also popular and reliable but could only carry 15 [Music] passengers the DC3 was superior to the u52 in every respect more seats better flight performance a modern design it became a role model for several generations of Passenger aircraft but soon the second world war would dramatically change its daily life in Switzerland the American plane became part of History this one nearly ended up on a highway intersection in Dubai now restored to her former glory she's enough of an eye-catcher to rival the [Music] Alps she was rescued by Hugo Mattis a local businessman the DC3 has become his Hobby and now plays an important role in his life each year he spends about 70 hours in the cockpit you can feel the plane when you fly it you have to take it in your hands and experience it as a pilot I'm important so I have to do it myself it's something quite special special in 1936 Swiss Air decided against the German u52 choosing the DC3 instead with Paris London and Berlin among the airlines Prime destinations [Music] Switzerland became Douglas's first customer in Europe during World War II The Swiss DC3 wore neutral paint to avoid being shot down by the Germans as enemy aircraft [Music] not all dc-3s are enjoying as pleasant a retirement as the Vintage plane in Switzerland of the 16,000 planes built most and out grounded but even in the aircraft boneyards a DC3 retains a good value unlike most other aircraft in Wisconsin retired hulls are waiting to take to the the skies once again they are worth a few th000 [Music] each the airframe is fantastic it is after all a DC3 you modernize the electronics you put the new engines in it and you have almost a new [Music] airplane at Basler Turbo Conversions in Oshkosh these veterans of World War I are given a new lease on [Music] life the Swiss vintage plane also started her second career here as a retired c47 the military version of the [Music] DC3 in these hangers basor employs 100 men and Ashley hazy oh that was actually pretty easy I've only been aircraft mechanic for a year now over a year so honestly I was extremely intimidated Bing in knowing I was going to be the only girl Ashley has been interested in Planes since she was a child she began her career helping out at airfair which is what brought her to Oshkosh home to the world's largest Aviation [Music] show I just knew right away wanted to be an aircraft mechanic and I love it very much Ashley and her colleagues are working exclusively on dc-3s this is what Basler specializes in for Ashley every wck has its own [Music] personality they history I love history so much and each aircraft tells a different story and I mean even Judy over there obviously that one has quite a history as well and um it's just it's amazing what aircraft stories can tell Judy for example could tell how she was shot at in the war and how she performed several emergency [Music] Landings when Judy was built in California the world looked quite different the original idea at Douglas was to construct an airplane that offered seats during the day and beds at [Music] night the first customer American Airlines placed the order with a mere handshake instead of a formal [Music] contract the service was limited was also very expensive you had to be fairly wealthy to fly it was not for everyone people dressed in their Sunday Best to go flying because it was an occasion being an air hostess suddenly became a highly sought-after career the sleeper provided great comfort huge seats like living room chairs modern ladies and gentlemen's toilets and at night the seats became beds Hollywood loved the sleeper for the first time actors could fly in from New York without any annoying Hotel accommodation or train transfers travel time between East and West coasts was cut by more than half to only 15 hours including three stopovers for refueling so the DC3 kind of changed things by making the journey the destination uh as opposed to sort of slogging it out and and just getting where you need to go the PLS landed in Glendale near Beverley [Music] Hills the DC3 was fast robust and extremely economical other airlines also placed their orders with Douglas for regular service without any beds this was a master stroke of design and made the plane highly [Music] profitable the Hollywood sleeper has almost been forgotten today but not in Florida palm trees line the road to the Moss family Airfield when the last sleeper was sold a few years ago the family acted fast the original aircraft registration number is still visible the family wants to restore the DC3 but they lack the money to do [Music] so this is what Flagship Tennessee looked like in her prime back when she flew the rich and the Beautiful across the United States we're going to bring it back to what it was in uh in 1936 as the the oldest DC3 in the world today and you know it's it was a sixth one ever built so of all the dc-3s this one uh really really deserves to to live again and to to show the world what airline travel was in the [Music] mid-30s on board the food was freshly prepared there were no classes like today every ticket was equally expensive a flight across the United States cost the equivalent of 2 month salary and you were even allowed to [Music] smoke I started um when I was about 15 years old flying dc-3s with my dad from from Miami to the Bahamas Turks and caos and and uh you know in 2007 we bought our first one as a family in the 1990s the Moss family was living and flying in Alaska at the age of seven Glenn was allowed to take control of the plane under his father's supervision of course it was really something to go to Alaska with my parents to be able to fly with my dad from Fairbanks to the different Indian Villages gold mines places that um really uh no one gets to go to it they put the boys in the front seat Charlie was 11 10 turned 11 and Glenn was seven and they'd put the boys in the front seat and they'd go in the back and the boys had that control the airplane that's me and that's Glenn uh these were good days you remember you were saying to all kids have to do this and I said be quiet and keep flying and Glenn had to stand up it is p and pull it back but they they made it go you know they got the feeling of it from the time they were really little the Swiss entrepreneur Ugo Mattis is also following his dreams however there is a difference of a few million dollars between his Ambitions and those of the Moss family in Oshkosh the hobby pilot has bought another DC3 from the meadow Judy let's talk about my a plane same configuration together Hugo Mattis and the workshop manager discuss the rebuilding of the aircraft during World War II Judy carried paratroopers in Just 2 years from now she will be able to do so again and what is your impression now with this airlane it's not bad actually the fuselage is not very bad from from just the initial look at it I don't think that it's I really don't think that it's very bad there are some spots obviously but um you know there's not as many holes in these frames you know they look pretty good there is still a lot to be done I knew it when I bought her buying the plane costs around 120th of what I'll spend in total and by the time I'm finished I'll have invested the same thing 19 times until it's what I want it to be the cutting of sheet metal requires strength and an eye for detail this aluminium sheet will replace a piece of Judy's outer skin well right now what I'm doing is uh I am going through and basically overhauling this Ruder for our next aircraft that's going to looks similar to that one um I've done fabric covering lots of riveting structural work all kinds of stuff so you need to have good muscles too or yeah um I don't know I I've definitely gotten stronger so I'd say yes but you don't have to be as strong as the guys to do it so 3:30 in the afternoon is clocking out time at basa A Douglas in Santa Monica a new era is looming the factory is working around the clock a few hundred dc-3s leave the production Halls every month nearly all of them are delivered to the military as [Music] c47s in December 1941 the United States entered World War II many civilian dc-3s including all sleepers were requisitioned and converted into c47 military transporters in addition the United States built up its own stock it also supplied hundreds of c47s to its allies especially to Great Britain and the Soviet [Music] Union obviously it's military story was quite a bit different you're not getting plush seats there were metal benches for the the Troopers to to sit on or they could take two light trucks I mean this is this a remarkable airplane and basically had a a reputation to carry whatever you could put in it whatever you could throw at it in England the 101st US Airborne Division was rehearsing for dday for the liberation of Western Europe thousands of paratroopers supported a landing operation in Normandy one of the units later became known as The Band of Brothers their most important vehicle for transport and supplies was the c47 a true Workhorse we had number of c47 practice jumps in the states and of course after we got over to Europe to England we perhaps had 15 or 20 practice jumps from the [Music] c47 the Americans brought as much as they could to the table they only had one chance with the invasion so it had to be successful their surprise attack from behind German lines helped establish the beach heads for the first time in a War cargo gliders supplied the paratroopers the c-47s towed them towards the target Zone the Glad has carried everything that they could and we needed the supplies we needed the ammunition and we needed the equipment so the gliders provided that for us we couldn't carry a Jeep with us on the sea 47 it had to be on the gliders yeah I'm sure that if it weren't for the gliders or if it weren't for the c47s pulling them the mission would never been accomplished the gliders were made of wood they did not have to return and were therefore designed to be disposable they had a high failure [Music] rate [Music] they all cracked up the minute they hit the ground they cracked up they were no more good and sometime when they cracked up they cracked up a lot of people with them the prate Troopers called them flying coffins because we would have nothing to do with them they were dangerous as The Invasion approached the Americans had cause to be concerned to motivate his troops General Eisenhower the commanderin-chief addressed them in rousing terms the time 2200 hours June 5th 1944 the place England these pictures the first Air Force films to be received in the United States arrived 48 hours after the amphibious assault began I recall very well that everyone was nervous very quiet but very nervous you can see it you could feel it General Britton on the line for the takeoff passes on the traditional good luck charm a rabbit's foot in a first wave around 850 military Transporters released 177,000 paratroopers coming back in further waves to provide them with supplies The Invasion has started on their flight to France Ed shames and his comrades watched the deployments of hundreds of Warships making their way towards the beaches of Normandy The Invasion began with shelling from the naval artillery but even this opening failed to pave the way for the ground troops they encountered strong German defense fire as long as the enemy could supply enough ammunition to its Beach fortifications the Allied invasion would not be able to succeed [Music] it was the task of the paratroopers to cut off the German supply routes by taking control of all bridges near the beaches so that the Allied Ground Forces could land safely stand up hook up this mission was extremely dangerous the generals expected a casualty rate of 50% Ed shames and his comrades realized what they were up against I was afraid scared shaking like anyone else at that time because we knew that was a real thing I was scared to death at that moment it took him about 15 minutes to land Flo floating in the air the men were exposed to German defensive fire that jumped into a bunch of flack Tracer bullets artillery shells Flack and so forth how I wasn't hit I'll never know because the plane you could hear the flag bounce off the FL we would get ready to jump not only that that a parachute was coming down and you could hear something going through the parachutes cutting through the silk and that sound has never left me to this day few units jumped off at the right point because the pilots had lost their orientation a new radar system intended to Mark The Landing zones did not work some units ended up 5 miles from their Drop Zone others as far as 50 mil away we were there in no man's land enemy territory we had to make contact with the beach forces which we did after 3 days once they had landed the paratroopers were supplied exclusively from the air the c-47s came back again and again pulling the gliders behind [Music] them but that is what the German vermar were expecting they had flooded the fields and meadows to prevent the gliders from Landing safely the Germans also put up gladder barriers like poles like trees in the fields where gladers would land uh they did that quite a few places in Normandy but we overcame them somehow overcoming the barriers came at a high price to the glider Cruise one in Four soldiers was killed in the operation but those who survived helped turn the tide in favor of the Allies the German troops ran out of ammunition allowing Allied Forces to conquer the beaches and Advance Inland the vermak had to withdraw or surrender after only 3 days the Allied Forces moved Eastward to recapture France [Music] given the high risks faced by the paratroopers and glider Crews General Eisenhower honored the courage of his men but also praised the DC3 as a key factor in winning the second world [Music] war the First new newra footage of the invasion to appear in American theaters featured a plane called that's all brother this DC3 became a legend of the war when the crew baptized the plane with this name the paratroopers intended to send a message to Adolf Hitler that's all brother after the war the famous aircraft disappeared Without a Trace until it was miraculously rediscovered at Basler in Oshkosh 70 years later we actually didn't even know we had it it was sold to us by by a gentleman who was down on his luck and had pretty much run his operation out of money and he wanted to sell the airplane to us and we put it back with the other airplanes in our Boneyard we call it back in the grass and it sat there for several years I think seven maybe and we we just didn't even know what we had by sheer chance a historian recognized that's all brother by her serial number basa suddenly had a superstar on their hands but also a problem many wanted to buy the famous warhorse including Swiss Enthusiast Hugo matters very nice but in the end he had to make do with Judy it was annoying they had promised I could buy it but I understand the historical reasons This Plane belongs to America like Hur to [Music] America in Oklahoma City the fate of many vintage planes rests in the hands of Roy Owens Roy is giving the radial engines a thumbs up or down no pilot would ever dare to disagree with Roy's assessment a well-maintained engine is the best life insurance the pilot can have just behind IND us is the tear down area the engines have come in they're disassembled from there they go to cleaning from there uh polishing and inspection before they're built everything was handmade and everything is so precise they're just amazing [Music] engines today Judy's radial engine is under inspection it's dismantled to see if its cylinders still work safely enough or whether they've been pushed a little too [Music] hard the DC3 has two engines with 14 cylinders each each cylinder must reliably deliver 86 horsepower generating a total of 2,400 horsepower here's a CER push rod the roll cylinder is very important it takes all the heat the thermos shcks it is replace more than any other part on the engine when it in during its lifetime Roy is in no doubt Judy cylinders are only good for the scrap Heap and must be [Music] replaced for the next step Roy needs good [Music] friends what do we gather up here at the S Roy ow and I think for two engines so right I've got a new master Rod here brand new master Rod here a main bearing one one main bearing and that should be the rear the rear okay two and what about piston R I think we got them right here okay and a bearing shell so 25 to a box it's uh World War II vintage but as you can see it's perfectly preserved inside they uh they're packaged with cosmoline and um no no no okay really packaged to stand the test of time it was all military surplus um post World War II and and then the government would sell it off in lots and and the the big engine shops would buy the lots and they were able to continue Building engines for decades off of Military Surplus and and still [Music] today With a Little Help from the Moss family his friends in Florida Roy can build brand new engines from 80-year-old spare parts that were never used and therefore not exposed to any stress after all what we're looking at is an airplane that flew more than 80 years ago it flew barely a few years after the first transatlantic flight solo of Lindberg and something like less than 30 years after the first flight of the red Brothers you're looking at very significant aircraft with a fascinating history a fantastic history in every corner of the globe your rods bearings Master rod bearings for Hugo matters Roy has only bad news today there is total wear in almost all of Judy's cylinders um they they're heavily used very used you like newer better quality stuff and these would not fit your needs I don't feel M so there are new cylinders available and agree all 14 here 14 nice seven front seven rears we knew that it was used but I did not expect it to be so extreme the engines are completely exhausted for the Swiss pilot it's a bitter pill to swallow 14 new cylinders for a whopping $50,000 but as an engineer he knows parts of this quality come at a [Music] price th would it was built to last for decades you can see logically how it was put together each mechanical part has its own function and so it makes sense when you look at it it's just phenomenal a week later the brand new old engine will be on its way to OshKosh to become a part of [Music] Judy when a hobby becomes serious passion may be what is most required but knowledge is equally crucial Mobility has become more important to us than ever before but so too has reliability such strengths determin success or defeat and not only in Wartime and not only on the DC3 not even the engineers at Douglas could have guessed that some 80 years later their design would be considered the most successful plane in aviation history in 1948 this DC3 helped to save West Berlin from a Soviet takeover instead of being shut away in a museum for the rest of her days this Candy Bomber is intended to fly passengers over Berlin the pilot Frank hellberg the owner of a small Airline is aiming to get his dream off the ground but to get started he requires a license he doesn't have yet you can clearly recognize how this became the mother of modern airliners in Berlin she had a huge political impact too she turned former enemies into France this is the heritage of this plane and that's what we want to tell Berlin after the second world war was a city in ruins the German Capital had paid heavily for its role at the heart of the conflict its people lived in holes and sellers they were starving so-called Rubble women cleared the sights of the bombed out houses but then the victors began to argue in June 1948 the Soviet Union blocked all land routes into Berlin so that the Western allies could no longer get supplies to their sectors of the city the Americans and the British decided to supply 2 million people from the air it would become the most ambitious airlift ever [Music] attempted dc-3s were brought in again including 300 British dtas berliners called them candy bombers one of the pilots was Gail halison he is filming with his camera many Pilots still knew Berlin from the war we had got used to aircraft noise as children from the Allied Air Raids in the war but after the war there wasn't much air traffic over Berlin now it started again in 1948 with the airlift we were not afraid of these candy bombers we all knew that they had come to help us in June 1948 Germany was divided into four occupied sectors the candy bombers reached West Berlin using two corridors from Hamburg and Frankfurt they were the first air corridors in the world as soon as the planes were unloaded they returned to West Germany using a third return Corridor towards Hanover Berlin was probably the busiest airport on the planet for a brief period of time anything from food to Coal to milk everything that the Berlin population needed was flown in it was amazing every pilot had to make a successful First Landing in Berlin or fly back immediately without landing at all their schedule was excruciatingly tight food and coal were the primary supplies flown in on the DC 3s German Workers had 30 minutes to unload each aircraft that was break time for the pilots Gail is filming the snack bar where the pilots got their sandwiches they flew to Berlin up to seven times each day affected by the abject poverty he saw among the children of Berlin Gail saved some candy from his own rations and dropped it out of his plane attached to little parachutes soon the other Pilots began to do the same the German children loved it with this gesture the Americans won the hearts and minds of the West Germans if there was a parachute coming down then hundreds of children would run through the streets and Chase it it was an adventure for us as though you had found some golden treasure yes a bar of chocolate I didn't know a single child back then who had a whole chocolate bar for themselves today thousands of people barbecue here every summer when Boris fransa looks out over the abandoned templehof Airfield the old Berlin airport he wonders how many of them know about the role it played some 70 years [Music] ago at the New Berlin airport the DC3 crew cannot take off as their old Candy Bomber is no longer airworthy and their new one lacks the proper license putting in the seats from the old plane should help the new aircraft to get the license needed we measure the old Candy Bomber which flew in Berlin and make a comparison between the two aircrafts so we are allowed to transfer the passenger cabin from the old to the new aircraft let's take the cockpit as a reference point European Aviation law is complex in order to transfer the license Engineers have to confirm using a cross laser that both aircraft are identical down to the last millimeter if this is confirmed getting the passenger license for this old lady should be a pure formality Berlin a Berlin has an incredible history from the wars to the wall and this plane will help us to tell this story to the world after the airlift the DC3 served as a passenger plane for a few more years but the emergence of faster and more comfortable Jets soon put it out of business the Boeing began to take control of the Skies first the 707 on Long Haul flights then the 727 for Middle distance routes and in the mid 1960s the Boeing 737 for short [Music] halls but even in the jet age the veteran roared back to life in Vietnam the DC3 earned her final nickname Puff the Magic Dragon after a well-known hippie [Music] Anthem in Vietnam the armed cargo version AC 47 did not rain chocolate but rather fire and death first Tracer ammunition was shot to detect and illuminate the targets at night then came a hail of machine gun bullets firing up to 6,000 rounds per minute the Magic Dragon became the messenger of death there were three large guns uh set up in the rear port side of the aircraft and because of its its turning capability and because it was a slower aircraft it could actually swing around in a in a pylon formation and hit extremely tight targets just continuously so they could basically hold down the enemy in a in a in a basically a firing pattern just circle around them and keep them pinned into this this one [Music] area the crew flew until they ran out of either fuel or ammunition thanks to the gunships the US Air Force managed to stop several enemy offensives but this time not even the DC3 could turn around their military fortunes after the US withdrawal from Vietnam the DC3 finally seemed to to be consigned to history in most parts of the world but as it turns out its story was far from over there are still new and exciting chapters to be written in the 1990s the DC 3's old virtues are being enhanced with new technology such as turbo engines and a modern cockpit vintage aircraft are being reborn as basila turbos the paint is done all of the systems have been checked the airplane is ready to be delivered to the customer in fact the customer will be showing up today to sign the contract hopefully good morning good to see you again Andy hey Randy hey Randy how are you sir welcome to ashkash thank you sir it's just a great set of customers that we can we can work with on this we're really looking forward to that yeah that'd be cool very nice well here's the uh the final document for your airplan that you take and delivery of today it just basically states that you accept the airplane and it's finished and uh we can finalize the contract to last piece of paper good stuff got side we'll uh we'll go flying all right thank you Doug thank you very much sir sir thank you been a pleasure thanks thanks guys yep the turbo DC3 combines the best of Two Worlds from the past the original license the airframe and the aviation features and from the present the safety of a modern cockpit so I have a little bit of time 4,000 or so but uh mostly [Music] when starting the engines you can immediately hear the difference the turbo BR sounds like a jet no more buzzing of a piston engine while in the past 14 cylinders could easily overheat the turbo DC3 has fewer problems with hot or thin air the newly outfitted plane can therefore fly at higher altitudes and is more powerful This Plane will soon be commissioned by NASA to carry out ice measurements at the South Pole the German Alfred Vaga Institute has also bought two turbo Classics and equipped them with sophisticated technology for Polar research polar 6 will soon be setting off for the North Pole Thomas I'm releasing the coupling before leaving for the Arctic the research equipment is carefully tested a laser is carried like a cruise missile under the hull okay is Club our em bird is a great system we fly at low level and the instrument records the thickness of the sea ice from 25 m above its [Music] surface polar 6 flies slowly at 300 km per hour and very low this would be a serious disadvantage in passenger Transportation but it allows the researchers to gather accurate data over long distances we've seen in recent years that the ice is Getting Thinner and thinner in 2001 we found ice about 2.20 M thick in summer it was about half of that last year and now we are curious to see what the ice looks like this year the results of these research flights provide evidence of climate change for example in Greenland Greenland loses three times as much ice every year as there is in the entire European Alps the original features of the DC3 include a seant this allows the pilot to navigate with the sun in case his GPS fails near the North Pole the magnetic fields are a risk for modern navigation weather permitting the team cruises over the North Atlantic for up to 6 hours a day within 2 weeks 3,000 km will be screened and a huge amount of data [Music] gathered station North is the northernmost point of Greenland inhabited by only a few Soldiers the gravel Runway at this Danish military post is not a problem for the DC3 she manages well on uneven surfaces and can even land on snow and ice the extraordinary versatility of the DC3 is the reason for its long and exceptional career you put it on Wheels as normally you put it on skis you can use it in winter time off frozen rivers and lakes you can use it in deserts you can use it in small airports you can use it in mountainous areas it is a fantastic aircraft that can take off from Fairly short Fields using the technology that was available at the time the Thousand Lives of the DC3 was an exceptional journey through the 20th century luxurious Hollywood sleeper D-Day Cargo Carrier the savior of West Berlin and now at the age of 80 helping to solve The Riddles of climate change no other aircraft has done more to shape the course of history keep at it old [Music] girl

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Keywords: Aerospace innovation, Aerospace technology, Air travel, Aircraft manufacturing, Aircraft mechanics, Aircraft models, Aircraft production, Airplane manufacturing, Aviation industry, Cargo planes, Historical significance, Legend, Mechanics of flight, Military strategy, Military success, Military transportation, Rehabilitation, Science, Spark, Spark Channel, War history

Id: lZoLn3cO93c

Length: 52min 50sec (3170 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 04 2024