C-47 N74589 Info Sought

[Jerry O'Neill]

Not sure what airline, but they are "very nice". Only thing missing is the phone in the seat backs.
Jerry

[The Inspector]

Yeah, but in a DC-3 it would be two shorts and a long-

[The Inspector]

According to the 74th TCG website (which has NO link to contact them) the forward fuselage coding for Operation Varsity, part of Market Garden, was ID. Station until 6/1945 wad RAF Welford station either 474 or 477 depending on source. The 74th has a website but no way to contact them, so if you have a relative who was in the outfit, see if you can get some info/photos out of them ya never know, 42 24064 might be in one of them.

Also stumbled onto www.wwiivehicles.com that lists types and sqn #'s for carriers in the Pacific.

[DC3R4DC47]

Paint her in that WCA livery !!!

[The Inspector]

On Friday the 8th, I sent an E mail to the OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) inquiring as to whether or not they had any information concerning ex WCA DC-3 N56589 Shown in WallyB's posting above (things like c/n, line #, military s/n, you know, the sort of things a museum should have in archives). I just got a 'reply' from OMSI from a Ms. Erickson who did not include any sort of title or description of her position with OMSI, the reply was pretty dismissive and not very forthcoming and almost amounted to 'get off my leg'. What I did get from her is that in 1999 the OMSI stopped displaying the aircraft and gave it to the EVERGREEN MUSEUM in McMinnville where it is on display (?).
If anyone is interested, the FAA shows N56589 as an available N#

[WallyB]

What I did get from her is that in 1999 the OMSI stopped displaying the aircraft and gave it to the EVERGREEN MUSEUM in McMinnville where it is on display (?).

Well there certainly is a C-47 on display there:


But it isn't N56589, which was msn 4400 USAAF 41-18362 and ended up scrapped in Uruguay. The McMinnville one is ex-N62376 (msn 19978, 43-15512).

The confusion arose when OMSI repainted N62376 as N56589, either because that's what they thought it was or for some other unknown reason. This series of photos shows the move to OMSI but the airplane isn't positively identified. Several sources conflict, but I'm settling for the 'repaint' explanation.

[The Inspector]

And -512 is yet another ex WCA bird, Thanx again WallyB

[Pathfinder]

74/434 did not drop paratroopers on D-Day...It flew the CHICAGO mission which was the 0400 glider lift to LZ E on June 6, 1944.

The 434's Serial 27 was the formation in which the 101st's General Don F. Pratt was flying in the lead glider and was killed on landing. There is a partial formation list for this Group and Serial at Pat Elies excellent D-Day website. http://www.6juin1944.com/assaut/aeropus ... p?page=s27

I saw the microfilms of the official records which were used too compile what is here, and we were lucky to be able to get this much data out of them....the films were the worst possible quality imaginable.

Don't forget to pick the right paint scheme depending on WHEN you want to represent the plane. D-Day were all around invasions stripes. (Please do paint the stripes with a big old wall paper brush---not a NASSCAR micro-fine airbrush!!!) After Normandy the stripes on the top of the wings and from the National insignia over the top to the natsig on the opposite side were painted over (OD). ID is the correct nose coding for the 74th.

[The Inspector]

Pathfinder;

I just want to say 'thanx' for clearing up, what I'm sure crossed some folks' minds about the 74th on 6/6/44. They were a glider tug outfit, not a paratroop outfit.

I also agree 100% about 'invasion stripes' and the penchant today to do a Riddler Award type striping job to represent something that was done overnight, with extremely basic instructions, two or three buckets of paint and a few wallpaper brushes, out doors in the dark.

Several photos have been posted here and other places showing in theatre markings that looked like they were laid out by someone who couldn't draw a straight line if he was standing on a yardstick and must have been shaking like a hound dog passing a strand of barbed wire 'parallel? I don't even got one lel, neva mind a pair of 'em'. A few years ago a warbird had points deducted @ Reno judging because one of the judges insisted, in spite of factory documentation in hand and shown to him, that this aircraft wasn't painted in the 'correct' scheme.

[Pathfinder]

No problem....one little thing....the 74TCS and 434TCG were not exclusively "a glider outfit"....they were TROOP CARRIER and performed whatever task was assigned within that scope.

For MARKET-GARDEN they flew Serials A-4 (45 a/c) and A-6 (45 a/c) on D-Day (17SEP44) carrying the 501st PIR to DZs A and A-1 near Veghel.

Don't miss the subtleties of Serial numbering. Serials A-1 thru A-2b were Pathfinders...Serial A-3 was carrying 82nd personnel from a different Wing on a different route to a different place. The elements of 434th comprising Serial A-4 was the first serial of the American airborne effort to enter the 101st's a/o in Holland....dropping paratroops. Serial A-6 was the second.


To correct something in your post above ...Operation Varsity, part of Market Garden ...VARSITY and MARKET-GARDEN are two completely different things. OMG commenced on 17SEP44. VARSITY on 24MAR45

[shepsair]

Hi

Well done with the rebuild.

Would be nice to see her in a WWII scheme.

http://marketgarden.secondworldwar.nl/TCC/434group.html

regards MS

[wendovertom]

Any recent info on this C-47?? According to flightaware it is now in Florida?!

Tom P.

[flightsimer]

Lots, this is Union Jack Dak, so just search the web... It flew over to. Normandy last year to take part in the 70th aniversary displays.

[Warbird Kid]

Lots, this is Union Jack Dak, so just search the web... It flew over to. Normandy last year to take part in the 70th aniversary displays.

I think he was more of wondering who the new owner is, and what the plan is for her. So sad to see our only large Warbird leave Connecticut. Now we're down to a Mallard at KBDR and an Albatross at DXR.