The National World War II Museum

[NoviVespa]

Browse around. See and Hear, first person talk about WW II.

http://www.nationalww2museum.org/index.html

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[rrrr]

I was there a few weeks ago...kinda disappointed at the lack of artifacts. They have a DC-3, Spitfire, Bf109, and Douglas Dauntless hanging in the main hall, a Higgins boat, a halftrack, and a couple of other vehicles alongside. That's pretty much it...maybe a few dozen small artifacts in the viewing areas. There is a PT boat under restoration across the street but access is limited to intermittent tours.

It's a huge undertaking to be sure...I just wish there was more hardware on display.

[Sea Fury]

I was there a few weeks ago...kinda disappointed at the lack of artifacts. They have a DC-3, Spitfire, Bf109, and Douglas Dauntless hanging in the main hall, a Higgins boat, a halftrack, and a couple of other vehicles alongside. That's pretty much it...maybe a few dozen small artifacts in the viewing areas. There is a PT boat under restoration across the street but access is limited to intermittent tours.

It's a huge undertaking to be sure...I just wish there was more hardware on display.

They probably have a C-47, not a DC-3. There is a difference.

[NoviVespa]

They probably have a C-47, not a DC-3. There is a difference.

In The History Channel Magazine, one of the best magazines out there, they did an article on that museum. That is why I posted the site. About that C-47, you would never guess how they obtained it. They purchased it on Ebay.

[rrrr]

They probably have a C-47, not a DC-3. There is a difference.

LOL, I just typed that unconsciously. It is actually a C-47 that saw combat...ah well, sometimes I make mistakes.

[Sea Fury]

LOL, I just typed that unconscionably. It is actually a C-47 that saw combat...ah well, sometimes I make mistakes.

It's very common, given the amount of C-47s that were purchased surplus and pressed into airline service postwar and referred to as "DC-3s," but the truth is there are very few actual DC-3s left. The great majority of survivors are C-47s, for the simple reason that the vast overwhelming majority of Gooney Birds built were wartime C-47s and variants thereof.

There were only 607 DC-3s built, versus well north of 10,000 C-47s. The Soviets also produced a version, the Lisunov Li-2, a single example of which is still flying.

A little-known fact is that a variant of the DC-3, produced under a prewar license, was numerically the most important Japanese wartime transport as well-the Nakajima L2D, also known as the Navy Type 0 Transport, Allied codename "Tabby." Towards the end of the war, with metal becoming scarce, they were working on a wooden version.

The Gooney Bird therefore is one of the few types that fought on both sides of the war.

[Tifositoo]

It's very common, given the amount of C-47s that were purchased surplus and pressed into airline service postwar and referred to as "DC-3s," but the truth is there are very few actual DC-3s left. The great majority of survivors are C-47s, for the simple reason that the vast overwhelming majority of Gooney Birds built were wartime C-47s and variants thereof.

There were only 607 DC-3s built, versus well north of 10,000 C-47s. The Soviets also produced a version, the Lisunov Li-2, a single example of which is still flying.

A little-known fact is that a variant of the DC-3, produced under a prewar license, was numerically the most important Japanese wartime transport as well-the Nakajima L2D, also known as the Navy Type 0 Transport, Allied codename "Tabby." Towards the end of the war, with metal becoming scarce, they were working on a wooden version.

The Gooney Bird therefore is one of the few types that fought on both sides of the war.

What were some others? I know a few Curtiss P-36's were flown on both sides in Europe, and I believe the Dutch had a few Junkers Ju-86 bombers built under license with British engines that may or may not have seen some combat; also, weren't there some French airplanes that saw both Free and Vichy use? ISTR some models we had at Grissom that were painted with red and yellow stripes on their control surfaces to differentiate between Free and Vichy aircraft, but I forget the particular plane in question.


Dan

[Mindervillain]

It's very common, given the amount of C-47s that were purchased surplus and pressed into airline service postwar and referred to as "DC-3s," but the truth is there are very few actual DC-3s left. The great majority of survivors are C-47s, for the simple reason that the vast overwhelming majority of Gooney Birds built were wartime C-47s and variants thereof.

There were only 607 DC-3s built, versus well north of 10,000 C-47s. The Soviets also produced a version, the Lisunov Li-2, a single example of which is still flying.

A little-known fact is that a variant of the DC-3, produced under a prewar license, was numerically the most important Japanese wartime transport as well-the Nakajima L2D, also known as the Navy Type 0 Transport, Allied codename "Tabby." Towards the end of the war, with metal becoming scarce, they were working on a wooden version.

The Gooney Bird therefore is one of the few types that fought on both sides of the war.

Thanks SF; knowing better than to argue with you about this stuff I was going to point out that there were a number of airframes that went back and forth between being C-47s and DC-3s - sometimes several times.

One of those, a C-47 that had turned commercial and then back into an Air Force workhorse, was the first airplane I was ever allowed to "steer." The pilot, a Major and my boss, invited me to sit in the right seat and fly for about half an hour as we churned our way from Great Falls to Minot. I was an E-4 at the time.

When I later took flying lessons the Cessna 150 I flew handled somewhat differently from the G-Bird.

[Sea Fury]

What were some others? I know a few Curtiss P-36's were flown on both sides in Europe, and I believe the Dutch had a few Junkers Ju-86 bombers built under license with British engines that may or may not have seen some combat; also, weren't there some French airplanes that saw both Free and Vichy use? ISTR some models we had at Grissom that were painted with red and yellow stripes on their control surfaces to differentiate between Free and Vichy aircraft, but I forget the particular plane in question.

Aside from....well, the entire Italian air force, there were a few aircraft that were being license-produced in one country or another on agreements that predated the outbreak of hostilities. The Gooney Bird is one; the Gooney's predecessor, the DC-2, is another. The Japanese assembled a handful of them under license prewar, and pressed them into service. Several Heinkel He-115 floatplanes-captured or provided by defectors-were used for clandestine operations by the British government during the war, operated by BOAC. I believe the Brits and the Soviets briefly operated a few captured Ju-52s for clandestine missions as well.

The Germans also pressed a number of aircraft from overrun countries into the Luftwaffe. They also already had a number of Italian-made fighters, such as MC.205s, in Luftwaffe service that soon found themselves facing off against the same types when the Italians switched sides.

[rrrr]

The Germans used captured B-17s for various purposes.

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org...7fortress.html

[Jamski]

My son and I will be visiting the Patton Museum at Fort Knox in a couple of weeks. Very cool if you've never been, and free to boot.

[Mindervillain]

Just FYI, there's another Patton Museum along I-10 in California, midway between Blythe and Palm Springs, near where Patton trained his troops in desert warfare. A little less polished than the one mentioned here, but still very interesting with tanks and various artifacts from the training site. We used to stop there on our way home from Phoenix International Raceway - haven't done the trip since we gave up our season tickets some years ago. Among other things, the museum gift shop used to sell dummy hand grenades - probably no more.

http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/feb/stories/paton.html