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C-47 "Skytrain"
Texas, San Antonio - Lackland AFB - C-47 "Skytrain"
The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (RAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remains in front line service with various military operators to the present day.
The C-47 differed from the civilian DC-3 in numerous modifications, including being fitted with a cargo door, hoist attachment, and strengthened floor, along with a shortened tail cone for glider-towing shackles, and an astrodome in the cabin roof.
The specialized C-53 Skytrooper troop transport started production in October 1941 at Douglas Aircraft's Santa Monica, California plant. It lacked the cargo door, hoist attachment and reinforced floor of the C-47. Only a total of 380 aircraft were produced in all because the C-47 was found to be more versatile.
During World War II, the armed forces of many countries used the C-47 and modified DC-3s for the transport of troops, cargo, and wounded. The U.S. Naval designation was R4D. More than 10,000 aircraft were produced in Long Beach and Santa Monica, California and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Between March 1943 and August 1945 the Oklahoma City plant produced 5,354 C-47s.
A C-47 flown by the China National Airways Corporation (CNAC) pilot Moon Chin, who had previously flown "The Hump" in the aircraft, had a role in the Doolittle Raid. Moon Chin was tasked with flying from Chungking to Myitkyina, a military base in Burma. His aircraft was "jumped" by Japanese fighters and, after landing at a small hidden airstrip to wait for his pursuers to give up the game, he planned to resume his flight to Myitkyina. One of his passengers, "an unshaven, balding, bedraggled American" who was dressed in a combination of civilian clothing and an Army uniform, suggested that he fly to a field in India since the American had heard that Myitkyina had fallen to the Japanese. When Chin's DC-3 arrived at Myitkyina, he found that the base had, indeed, been severely bombed by the Japanese and hundreds of people were milling around the airdrome. Eventually, Chin would carry sixty-eight passengers and a crew of four (including eight stowaways in the aft compartment he did not know about) on the final leg to India. After arriving in India, the tattered American approached Captain Chin and thanked him for the ride. "Believe me, Chin," he began, "if I had had any idea that you were going to jam that many people into this old crate I would have gone home the way I came." Chin inquired as to how that might have been and the American replied "I flew in, by way of Tokyo." The short, balding, bedraggled American was none other than Lt Col Jimmy Doolittle returning from the historic raid on Tokyo.
In Europe, the C-47 and a specialized paratroop variant, the C-53 Skytrooper, were used in vast numbers in the later stages of the war, particularly to tow gliders and drop paratroops. During the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, C-47s dropped 4,381 Allied paratroops. More than 50,000 paratroops were dropped by C-47s during the first few days of the invasion of Normandy, France, in June 1944. In the Pacific War, with careful use of the island landing strips of the Pacific Ocean, C-47s were even used for ferrying soldiers serving in the Pacific theater back to the United States. [Wiki]
