C-47 with a whole lot of history

[evangilder]

You never know what you might come across when out exploring. I have more pictures of this airplane, but here are a few. This airplane is a veteran of D-Day, Battle of the Bulge and Arnhem in Europe. It is also a veteran of the Yom Kippur war in 1967 and probably others. It was delisted from Israeli service in 1999 and ended up in Canada somehow. Now, it is in Paso Robles California. What is interesting is that there are no registration numbers anywhere on this airplane, from Canada or the US. It is in the process of getting some work done and some restoration before it flies again here.

The mods are all over and there are some interesting facets to this particular airplanes, especially if you know about the early DC-1s and DC-2s as well. This one has some of the windows from the sleeper cabin...

What a neat bird!

 

[syscom3]

That would be nice to see it restored to its WW2 markings!

 

[Micdrow]

Cool shots as always evangilder, I dont know if you remember but there is a DC-3 restoration company in Oshkosh by the airport. Some where I have a bunch of pictures of battered up Dc-3's and such waiting for restoration.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Very cool Eric.

 

[coastdef]

I suspect this plane is one of those that was located at Villeneuve Airport, St. Albert, Alberta, Canada. There were six that were imported, and as of a while back, three were still there; hopefully this means there are only two sitting out in the weather now. The dc3 website has some more information:

alberta

The C-47 "Boogie Baby" (pictures posted in this forum) was also part of this group of ex-Israeli airplanes. If her history is representative of the rest of them, they saw some interesting times.

Boogie Baby

Regards,

Andy

 

[evangilder]

Neat stuff, Andy. Thanks for the info.

 

[pbfoot]

Here is another C47 with some provenence it served with 316th Troop Carrier Group was as one of the lead aircraft over St Mere Eglise with a good possibility even hauling the "Band of Brothers"

 

[evangilder]

Nice restoration on that one. Beautiful!

 

[FLYBOYJ]

From the first photo it looks like it did have an "N" number at one time.

 

[pbfoot]

The interior is done except they are looking for the seats it belongs to the guys in Geneseo not quite the replacement for Fuddy Duddy

 

[Micdrow]

Found a couple of pictures, here is the name and web site of company that has them.

Basler Turbo Conversions, LLC* Basler Turbo 67 Aircraft

 

[coastdef]

Looks like she was N47SJ. It was reported sold to the Estrella Warbirds Museum at Paso Robles; FAA records show the same.

Regards,

Andy

From the first photo it looks like it did have an "N" number at one time.

 

[evangilder]

That's where I was, Estrella Warbird Museum. Thanks Andy! I want to do a little tracing on this one. I have a co-worker that is family of Israeli military members. She has translated some of the stuff, I am going to have her do some more.

 

[syscom3]

Evans, over at OC - John Wayne airport, theres a pair of C47's over in the tarmac that Lyons has his B25/B17/A26 parked at.

I wonder what he has in store for them.

 

[evangilder]

Who knows! He seems to be gathering quite a collection over there.

Looks like this C-47 was used for ELINT (Electronic Intelligence). One, maybe more of the C-47s that the Israelis acquired was set up for ELINT. These were called Barvaz, or mallard in English. I am still gathering, but this plane was built in 1943 and sent to Europe. After the war, the Belgians and the French had it for some time before going to the Israelis in approximately January of 1967.

 

[evangilder]

I published a web-based article about this airplane this morning. Thanks for the help, guys!

Van Gilder Aviation Photography of Southern California- A C-47 with some history

 

[Micdrow]

Very Cool article Evangilder

 

[evangilder]

Thanks! It is really something to see.

 

[coastdef]

Another of the planes imported at the same time (N751A, Boogie Baby) was also a ELINT aircraft; Boogie Baby wasn't actually acquired by Israel until 1975. I think it's possible all of those imported to Canada in 1999 may have been in that configuration. Could be that is why those C-47's stayed in service until that time.

Regards,

Andy

Who knows! He seems to be gathering quite a collection over there.

Looks like this C-47 was used for ELINT (Electronic Intelligence). One, maybe more of the C-47s that the Israelis acquired was set up for ELINT. These were called Barvaz, or mallard in English. I am still gathering, but this plane was built in 1943 and sent to Europe. After the war, the Belgians and the French had it for some time before going to the Israelis in approximately January of 1967.

 

[evangilder]

Possibly, but the Israelis loved them:
"Clipped Wings" by Arieh O'Sullivan