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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0321.PDF
FLIGHT, 23 March 1956 VETERAN DC-3s Some Remarkable Achieve- ments of Air Hour Totals By DENNIS M. POWELL, F.R.G.S. A well-remembered photograph, taken in 1937, of Swedish Airlines' SE-BAB, "Hoken." Now renamed "Bele Viking," and wearing a more modern livery, this DC-3 is still in S.A.S. service. 319 A LTHOUGH large numbers of "old faithful" Douglas DC-3sf\ are slowly but surely being replaced by newer transports on A. .*_ several major airlines who are I.A.T.A. members, I.A.T.A.statistics reveal that some 700 aircraft of this type were still oper- ated by these carriers at the end of 1955, and at least an equalnumber are still in active commercial service all over the globe. Their non-I.A.T.A. operators include large numbers of "little air-lines" in America and elsewhere, and at least 300 of the aircraft are owned and operated by a wide variety of American companiesas general business and executive-cum-V.I.P. transports. Further- more, most of the world's major and minor air forces still employseveral hundred Military C-47 Series on a wide variety of duties. The main object of this article is to record some of the mosttruly outstanding examples of really veteran "long-hour" DC-3s still performing, with almost monotonous efficiency, the normalroutine tasks of carrying thousands of passengers and many tons of mail and cargo every year. Turning back the clock some twenty-odd years, the first sevenDC-3s built all went to American Airlines Inc., which included the prototype NX14988 (which made its historic first flight onDecember 24th, 1935) and the first production aircraft NC16001, which later became 42-56097—a C-49E* in the U.S.A.A.F. sometime early in 1942. There does not appear to be documentary evidence to show just how these first two DC-3s built ended theircareers in World War 2, and, regretfully, the same inevitable ques- tion mark applies to the next two production aircraft of the series—ATC16002 and NC16003. Most probably they were written off or crashed whilst in U.S.A.A.F. war service, like so many otherthousands of aeroplanes between 1939 and 1945. However, the fifth, sixth and seventh DC-3s—all of which wereoriginally delivered to American Airlines Inc. in June 1936— are still going strong! They are N16004, now owned by AirServices Inc.; N16005, owned by Ozark Airlines Inc. of St. Louis, Missouri; and N16006, which belongs to East Bronze and Alu-minium Foundry Inc. (it is used as an executive transport). Although the precise airframe-hours of each of these 20-year-oldtransports has not been revealed by their current owners, N16005 is believed to have logged the greatest total—about 53,000-plushours—whilst the other two are each around the 48,000-hour mark. A DC-3 originally delivered to T.W.A. in 1937 is now being *C-49, as opposed to C-47, was at that period the designation of civil DC-3s impressed into military service.—Ed. operated by California Central Inc., a small airline located atBurbank. It is N17318, and up to October 1st, 1955, had amassed the huge total of 55,080 hours, logging 8| million miles in 18years of continuous service. From June 1942 to August 1943 this DC-3 served in the U.S.A.A.F. It was then returned to T.W.A.,who eventually sold it in January 1953. It was not purchased by Col. Charles C. Sherman (C.C.A.'s president and director ofoperations) until January 1954, and I do not know the identity of its interim-period owner. Another "long-hour" Douglas is N18124 (C.N.2000) of EasternAirlines Inc., which was retired from active service on May 1st, 1953, having logged no fewer than 56,782 hours and flown8i million miles in 15 years of service. N18124 has the truly unique distinction of now being permanently exhibited at theSmithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., alongside such his- toric aircraft as Lindburgh's Spirit of St. Louis and Wiley Post'sVega Winnie Mae. (This Eastern DC-3's remarkable career was described by the writer in considerable detail in Flight ofSeptember 18th, 1953.) Three United Airlines DC-3s—all of which were delivered tothat airline early in 1937—had amassed the huge total of over 143,000 airframe hours between them before they were sold inJuly 1953. They are N16070, N18939 and N16065, and their respective hours up to June 1953 were 49,460, 47,670 and 46,236.I have not been able to trace the present owners of these aircraft, but it is believed all three subsequently went to South Americaoperators. Of the large number of DC-3s still flying in Europe it is leasteasy to record detailed individual histories. Undoubtedly SE-BAB (C.N.1972), still flying on S.A.S. domestic schedules, is one of theoldest veterans. Originally delivered to A.B.A. (Swedish Airlines) in September 1937 and then named Hoken, she operated in com-pany with her two sister DC-3s, SE-BAA and SE-BAC on A.B.A.'s main routes from Stockholm to London, Moscow, Paris, Copen-hagen and Berlin until the outbreak of World War 2. During the war years she flew mainly on Sweden's domestic routes, althoughshe made many flights to both Berlin and Aberdeen (Dyce Air- port), rightfully pursuing her "privileges" as a neutral; the word"Sweden" was boldly painted (in 5ft-high letters) on each side of her fuselage, and underneath it as well. With the end of the war SE-BAB (in company with -BAA and-BAC) resumed her peaceful career once more. Although -BAA N16004, the fifth DC-3 built, is still flying with Air Services Inc., a U.S. charter operator. She was originally owned by A.A., Inc. Precise airframe hours are not known, but are believed to be at least 48,000.
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