Okay! I'm an aviation enthusiast. I'll admit it. My three favorite planes are the DC-3, the DC-9, and the C-141. DC-3s and DC-9s are still flying, albeit with smaller airlines, air freight companies, and aviation museums.
The last DC-3 I flew on was "That's All Brother," which led the Allied air invasion on D-day, June 6, 1944. It was in military configuration with metal seats that lined the fuselage walls. They were dreadfully uncomfortable, but one will do anything for just one more flight aboard a Gooney Bird. Perhaps, the best-known current user of the DC-3 is Buffalo Airways in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. It makes runs seven days a week. Even they, however, are facing difficulties in that petrochemical companies no longer want to manufacture the kind of fuel the DC-3 requires to run its Pratt & Whitney 1830 piston-driven engines.
The last DC-9 I flew on was a Southern Airways DC-9-14, between Memphis and Baton Rouge. After that, I just seemed to draw the DC-9 successor, the MD-80. (The Douglas Aircraft Company joined with the McDonnell Aircraft Company in 1967, giving new letters to Douglas planes after the DC-10). Not only do I love the lines of the DC-9 with its swept empennage and soaring T-tail, I love the deep growl of the Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines. It is a sound that tells me that I'm going home -- which I usually was when I flew.
The C-141, the first dedicated fanjet airlifter in USAF service, left Air Force service on May 6, 2006. All were destroyed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base's "boneyard," except for about five museum pieces. The reason why? Well, I don't know the official reason, but my personal opinion is this: When the plane was "stretched," adding 15 feet fore and aft of the wings to increase load capability, the wings lost their structural integrity. As a result, several incidences occurred of wings falling off during refueling, resulting in fires that were both fatal and completely destructive to the aircraft. The last such incident occurred in Memphis, where the lost fuel contaminated Nonconnah Creek.
Even so, when I see a large cargo plane with a soaring T-tail, I think "C-141 StarLifter!" I don't think "C-5 Galaxy" or "C-17 Globemaster III" or "BAe 146". I think "StarLifter!!!" After all, jet-powered airlift all began with the StarLifter.
Photo Credits:
DC-3/C-47. Taken at New Orleans Lakefront Airport, March 30, 2015 (Virginia Tolles)
DC-9. Southern Airways DC-9-14 (Ruth AS via Wikimedia Commons)
C-141. Travis Air Force Base, the return of POWs from Hanoi, February 1973 (photographer unknown)
Comments