DC-3 on floats

Canso42 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 20, 2007 9:05 pm

Some of you may have seen this contraption at Sun-n-fun or may have run across it under 'seaplanes' on a.net.
It IS a warbird-read the text. I think it's just odd; some think it's just wrong. Check it out at www.dc3history.org/floats.htm

I love boats and floats, but some just shouldn't be.

Canso42.

daveymac82c · **Posted:** Tue Mar 20, 2007 9:21 pm

Oh my goodness...

I had no idea there was still one around. Rather interesting! Amphib too. Now that's classy.

Thanks,

David

N3Njeff · **Posted:** Tue Mar 20, 2007 9:47 pm

Diddent I read some where that in the last 2 years, this airplane has had the floats removed and is back to a normal 3???

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Tue Mar 20, 2007 10:32 pm

while super slow assed, i always liked the lines of the gooney with edo floats.

Ztex · **Posted:** Tue Mar 20, 2007 10:40 pm

I've always wondered...how in the heck do you get in?

JDK · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2007 12:01 am

Ztex wrote:

I've always wondered...how in the heck do you get in?

That's a minor problem. The real issue was how to get the freight in and out, which is why it never was taken further in wartime.

IIRC, there's been a few - say two our three - C-47s put on floats after the war; but they weren't the same machines as the wartime floatplane conversions.

vernicator · **Joined:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:42 am **Posts:** 350

The original versions put on floast were C-47C's (XC-47C was the official designator). The one pictured on floats is a C-53 with Wright's vs. the C-47C's Pratts.

Just my $0.02 worth.

N3Njeff · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2007 3:28 am

JDK wrote:

Ztex wrote:

I've always wondered...how in the heck do you get in?

That's a minor problem. The real issue was how to get the freight in and out, which is why it never was taken further in wartime.

IIRC, there's been a few - say two our three - C-47s put on floats after the war; but they weren't the same machines as the wartime floatplane conversions.

That also may be but I remember hearing from the crew at sun-n-fun that it brought the useful load of the dc-3 to 3,600 lbs.

krlang · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:47 am

Was it Don that posted some pics from Greenville that showed the gooney on its conventional landing gear? It sat in Maine for many years and went to FL about 5 years ago, I had not heard what had been done but then I saw the pic on here. I have a picture of the boys doing a low approach at MHT back in the late 80s, it was also neat to see it taxiing on the ramp way up there.

A coworker of mine had always said that it would not have been put together if they knew the difference between AN and NAPA.

Jerry O'Neill · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:50 pm

I had a tour inside the aircraft in 1989 at the Manchester, NH, NE Escidrille show. It was quite a climb up the float and then the ladder to the inside.
Boy, would I like to have that plane!
Jerry

Don Martin · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:16 pm

Okay Kenny, here she is today(last fall 2006);

And in happier times(1991);

The truck underneath was there to give her a jump start!

I love the waterbirds on the step!

mustangdriver · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:22 pm

Is she still airworthy? I wonder what they did with those huge floats.

Don Martin · **Posted:** Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:31 pm

Supposedly, someone hit a chuck-hole and snapped one of the nose gear off. I didn't see the floats in Greenville last year, although I really wasn't looking for them(The S-39 was coming in to land right on the leading edge of a serious electrical storm, but I had to stay and get the inflight pics.....and run like HE11 to get off the field as the storm set in. The airport is on top of a hill! :roll:

) The flight controls were removed for recovering and supposedly she is supposed to fly again.

Canso42 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:52 pm

Thanks for the cool pix. Wrights eh? I didn't catch that. R-1820's? It doesn't have the cowlings and bigger 'Super 3' tail for the R-2600's.
Canso42.

N3Njeff · **Posted:** Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:59 am

Warbird Information Exchange

DC-3 on floats

Who is online