The last C117 in the Navy belonged to Naval Air Development Center Warminster, right outside Philly, and I think this is her. We used to see her frequently in Key West because NADC worked with AirTEVron One (VX1) developing and testing ASW gear.
VX1's acoustic electronics lab was right next door to us, and they would "breadboard" and function test a proposed new circuit design, NADC would convert that into a pre-production prototype, then VX1 would flight test it. The old gal did a lot of trekking back and forth. The test flights usually required numerous observers to watch for and report unexpected phenomena, which bored the flight crew folks silly, so anybody who wanted to go for a ride was welcome if they were willing to play observer. I was willing.
This bird was a "Super DC3", a marketing flop by Douglas which just couldn't compete with cheap surplus C47s and C54s. It had the latest fire breathing, two stage, two speed, supercharged, intercooled, hi-octane, Wright 1820 engines, and had so much thrust it needed more stabilizer and rudder to keep its single engine VMC down to a reasonable number. Hence the tall tail. Still, it wasn't that much faster than a converted C47 with a "speed kit" installed, and WAY more expensive. Plus, those highly tweaked engines had their share of issues. I hate to think of running those things on 100LL.
I hope TN can swallow the cost of two engines, two props, and all the sheet metal work, so as to keep a legend alive.