The New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut is currently undertaking the wholesale restoration of their Douglas DC-3.
http://www.warbirdsnews.com/category/aviation-museum-news/new-england-air-museum
The DC-3/C-47/R4D/Dakota has touched the lives of people from every country in the World, -- and the DC-3 is still at it! A new group of DC-3 fans are now retracing the path of history, and share a "Spirit of Aviation" that has crossed both generational and financial barriers to capture the heart of those that love aviation as a way of life, and not simply a occupation!
The New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut is currently undertaking the wholesale restoration of their Douglas DC-3.
http://www.warbirdsnews.com/category/aviation-museum-news/new-england-air-museum
BY ANTHONY ESPOSITO
SANTIAGO Mon Feb 9, 2015 7:31pm EST
(Reuters) - After a grueling journey up into the rarefied air of the Andes mountains, an expedition team announced it has discovered the fuselage of a passenger plane that went missing over a half century ago.
The LAN Chile Douglas DC-3 twin-propeller aircraft was reported missing on April 3, 1961, near the city of Linares, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of the Chilean capital of Santiago. Eight players and the coach of the top-flight Green Cross soccer club as well as three referees were among the 24 passengers traveling aboard the plane.
The airline, now part of Latam Airlines Group, the region's largest carrier, was state-owned at the time of the accident.
Rescuers found the tail end of the aircraft and some human remains a week after the crash, an official who asked not to be named told Reuters, but the recovery effort was abandoned near the snow-capped peaks due to its dangerous and remote location.
The rediscovery of the plane is shedding new light on the tragedy, and rekindling the hopes of a long-awaited farewell for some of the passengers' surviving family members.
To get to the crash site at 3,000 meters (9,843 feet) above sea level, the nine-member mountaineering team traveled two days by horseback, traversing streams and ravines, and then spent another two days climbing deep into the mountains. It took another two days to get back down.
For expedition team leader Lower Lopez, who unsuccessfully made two attempts last year to locate the plane, the third time was the charm. January to April is typically the best time of the year to climb in the Chilean Andes south of the capital.
His team found pieces of the plane, including a propeller, scattered about a rocky slope.
"We also found human remains," Lopez told Reuters on Monday.
Several family members want to make the journey to the site themselves to pay their final respects, he said.
"They want to go up, close a chapter in their lives, see where the plane and the remains of their loved ones are," said Lopez, adding that some family members had reached out to him personally. Efforts to contact family members for this story were unsuccessful.
"If they aren't physically able, I won't go up with them ... it's too dangerous," Lopez added.
(Reporting by Anthony Esposito, editing by G Crosse)
The FAA's Douglas DC-3, N34,is now located in the Texas Air & Space Museum,
Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport,
10801 Airport Blvd, Amarillo, TX 79111
and is open to the public during regular museum hours.
http://www.texasairandspacemuseum.org/dc-3_page.htm
It is also on the national register of historic places
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/aviation/dou.htm
PT Solinski
(CNN) —Peter J. Goutiere was just shy of 30 years old when he piloted a Douglas C-47, the military designation of the venerable commercial DC-3, from Miami to Kolkata, India.
Read more: http://www.wptz.com/money/travel/world-war-ii-pilot-99-reunited-with-plane/27946786#ixzz3CtHQ5JrC
Angel made me aware of this Outstanding D-day awesome graphic
https://www.flickr.com/photos/metrobest/3707343662/sizes/l/
Check it out…C-47 fans
Historic C-47 Departs for Normandy
Flying Magazine
Whiskey 7, a Douglas C-47 that flew as a lead ship dropping paratroopers during ... After the war the C-47 was converted to a DC-3, flying for several airlines ... The C-47 departed Geneseo Airport at about 2:30 p.m. local time today.