DC-3 Question

[bdk]

Anyone have a history of the registered owners of this aircraft?

N16096

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNumSQL.asp?NNumbertxt=16096

I'm curious who owned it on the early 1960s.

[vernicator]

The faded logo on the tail belongs to Mercer Airlines USA. Do a google search and you might find something.

[CAPFlyer]

From Aerotransport.org -

Reg'n | Type | MSN | Operator | Became
N16096 | DC-3-277 | 2136 | Eastern AL | To Miami AL
N16096 | DC-3-277 | 2136 | Miami AL | To Mercer AL
N16096 | DC-3-277 | 2136 | Pacific American | To Air Caribbean
N16096 | DC-3-277 | 2136 | Air Caribbean | Part-Out

Unfortunately it doesn't have any listing of dates.

[bdk]

Thanks. I saw this bird on an episode of Perry Mason and was wondering where the shot was taken and who owned it at the time.

[Chris Brame]

Mercer Airlines must have had an "in" with the movie and TV studios - two of their DC-3s were leased for the 1958 film China Doll and their DC-2 was used in the 1956 film Back From Eternity.

Come to think of it I wonder if it was a Mercer DC-3 they used in that Twilight Zone episode "The Arrival"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Arrival.jpg

[bdk]

The old Perry Mason show actually had a number of episodes featuring aviation. I spotted the N-number of a Cessna 170 that is now on the east coast in one episode. I wonder if the present owner knows his plane is a TV star?

[The Inspector]

They (Mercer) could have been the 50's answer to SALAIR who's N3FY was in several episodes of Mc Jiver and flew Rocky to Russia to get his clock disassembled by Dolf Lundgren. 262crew (@ 12 yrs old)and I rode in 3FY during the DC-3 50th out of Abottsford in 86, now just rubble off the edge of a dirt strip in Central America after not making a safe landing in nasty weather several years ago.

[Oldog]

The airplane was operated by Mercer Airlines of Burbank through the early 1970s. Mercer sold out and the new company was Pacific American Airlines. The last picture of the airplane showed it derelict on the ramp at San Juan, PR with the Pacific American logo showing through the paint; from there I believe it was deregistered and scrapped.

The airplane was an original "Douglas Airliner" (not a wartime model) DC-3-G202A originally delivered to American Airlines as the Flagship Tucson. It still had the flagpole socket outside the copilot's window when I flew it in the late 1960s.

[Chris Brame]

Another Mercer-Hollywood connection: One of their pilots was Arch Hall, Jr., the star of '60s drive-in cult films Eegah!, The Choppers, Wild Guitar, and The Sadist. He might have flown that DC-3.

[JohnB]

Another Mercer-Hollywood connection: One of their pilots was Arch Hall, Jr., the star of '60s drive-in cult films Eegah!, The Choppers, Wild Guitar, and The Sadist. He might have flown that DC-3.

And son of Arch Hall, Sr...director of such cinematic triumphs.
Not quite Ed Wood stuff, but close...or so says my book on bad movies.

Still, there are a lot of old planes out there with interesting bits of history and like bdk, I wonder if their present owner's know about their claim to fame?

Some are in films and TV (I have a friend whose Goose appeared in The Saint) and had another aircraft which appeared on the cover of Flying back in the early 70s. Or my favorite "famous" airplane that the owner probably doesn't know about would be the Piper Tri-Pacer N7019B which was the subject of Monogram's model in the 50s...and as a $.29 plastic Woolworth-type toy Pacer I had as a kid.

And the Bell 47J Ranger used in The Whirlybirds is still out there, but the owner knows its history.

[Chris Brame]

And son of Arch Hall, Sr...director of such cinematic triumphs.

Who was played by Robert Mitchum in Jack Webb's 1961 movie The Last Time I Saw Archie... in which they smashed up a real PT-26 (FF to 5:35 if it doesn't start there):
http://youtu.be/Kvdshku3cwc?t=5m35s