Dave G. wrote: "When I was in the RAF... I flew in and helped
maintain (among many other old WW2 kites) the good old DC2 and the
DC3. Hated those darn webbing seats...And don't forget the famous
(ex-RAF) DC 2&1/2 which was still flying the last time I saw it in
Malaya in 1975....
By the DC 2 and 1/2, are you talking about the old CNAC DC-3 that was
being flown (by Americans) into the interior of China in either 1940 or
41 (but before Pearl Harbor), and was bombed on the ground by the Japs?
The one that they cannibalized a DC-2 for a new wing that flew just fine
although the right wing was FIVE INCHES shorter than the left? You
know, I wonder if any of those old American pilots and crew who
contracted with the Chinese are still alive. As important as the Flying
Tigers, they were also a remarkable bunch!!!!
Of the 156 DC-2's, only a couple are still flight-worthy. Douglas
Aircraft bought back an old one that they had originally sold to Pan
Am. They gave retired Douglas employees a hanger in Long Beach (near
where the C-16's are built), and paid for all the costs so it could be
restored. It was a goose-bump giving sight to see it flying in and out
of Long Beach and over our house! When Douglas eventually became part
of McDonnell, and then Boeing, I hated it when it was taken to a museum
up in Washington. A museum in the Netherlands has one that went from
the Navy to KLM, and it is still flying. It was flown almost back home
when it came to California for a paint job a few years ago. Finally, the
last I heard, the national museum in Australia was in the process of
restoring a former RAAF DC-2 to flying condition.
Interestingly enough, the DC-2 also became a bomber. When in the
mid-1930's the Army was looking for a new bomber, a competition was
held Donald Douglas cnverted a DC-2 into a bomber with relatively few
modifications, and it competed with Boeings prototype for the B-17.
Well, the prototype crapped out, and the contract was given to Douglas
for an eventual 250 B-10's.
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