Flew at TAL around ‘98 for a few years, fondly remember G. Gentile. A gem of a man.

I just saw the Star of America at JFK Terminal 5 by the TWA hotel. Amazing story and thanks for giving us a deeper look.

They used to call those power recovery turbines "parts recovery turbines" .

Thank you for this and the sequential series of 3 . From times past we all learn . I retired from a 34 year airline career . All turbine equipment. My father started on overseas in 1955 as Captain on DC 6’s , Pacific operations based out of CYVR ( Canadian Pacific Airlines ) down to Australia and New Zealand via Hawaii and Fiji . The stories recounted revealed that it was a struggle at best . Navigation , range , weather systems, fatigue and the equipment. The 6 was followed by the Britannia 314 , plagued with its own unique set of issues plus the ones noted above . Then the skys cleared so to speak when the DC 8’s came on line . I have always wondered about the skill it took to operate a large round piston engine and have tried to study how they did what they did to get them across the large and empty deep blue of the Pacific . All alone so to speak . Thanks to your efforts I have a greater respect and understanding . Cheers RS , CYVR .

67-70 T-28,, C-47, U3A, T-29s. crew chief. Thailand, Mather AFB Ca. enjoyed those days.

I love the sound that the DC3 engines make. Awesome cool! Thank you for an excellent presentation. 🙏

Makes me wonder whether "Rosie the Riveter" could have ever imagined the plane she worked on in the 1940's would still be flying in 2024 with an upgraded power plant.... They built them well, but I don't think longevity was on their minds. They just wanted their men to come home....

The Tri 3 was still in operation during the summer of 1990 doing research at the North Pole regions, based out of Thule Greenland, my close friend John Haggland a Fairbanks AK resident was the crew chief

Basler Aviation in Oshkosh.

The audio on this intro is only playing on the left channel, mono… very distracting, other than that, I like the Content and the idea behind your channel.

I'll bet it was fun. TAL crews were the best and I enjoyed working with them. I suppose you must have helped them "fly out of" the piston age if you were with them in the mid-90s. J.A. Reed.

Excellent information.

Not doing too badly for a design that first flew in 1935.

Between the non pressurized cabin and the present day cost prohibitive industrial duty grade air frame those planes are rebuild-able and re-certifiable forever. Science labs in Antarctica getting their supplies delivered in DC 3s.

The DC-3 (alias Dakota, C-47, Skytrain) was designed and first built BEFORE engineers had a good handle on metal stress analysis, metal fatigue. Therefore, to be safe the DC-3 was overbuilt. This made it a particularly tough aircraft and long lived....very long lived. Eisenhower dubbed it one of the allied pieces of equipment that won WWII for the allies, along with the LST (assault landing craft) and the Jeep.

Thank you John. I have subscribed. Cheers from NZ🇳🇿.

I flew for Trans Air Link in the mid-1990s. Fun times.

Can't believe it took this long to lay eyes on a DC-3 with turboprops. WOW!

The DC-3 is also one of the most graceful looking plane. We might even say it's beautiful.

I remember as a kid seeing them still being used by the airports at CVG and LUK for cargo.

Can you help me to find out what happened to VP WAJ That my father was involved in purchasing I believe and from the records was registered to Air Trans Africa I.e. Jack Mallock? Regards Dave Ward

WAY too much of an INTRO. to the actual documentary.. I'm an R-2800 fan..

The DC-3 actually hasn't got a defined hull/wing life. No one really knows how long they can last. From the same era, the JU 52 3M is the same.

I think South Africa retro fitted a bunch of DC3s with turbo props during the apartheid years

Nothing beats those last generations of propeller driven piston engined aircraft.

I did not hear a lot of audio If there were a lot of audio content it was completely gone

The wild thing about the DC-3 is that it never looked like an OLD airplane. It looks contemporary.

This is a super video! But i get only the left channel making it hard to listen to.

the wasp major is amazing piece of engineering, I've seen a couple of cut away examples on display and watching the cylinder banks cycle through is awe inspiring...

How about 2 under slung fan jets

I was plane capt. on LE-1 ,LE-7,LE-8.VP-11. Brunswick,Me. 1961 -1965. LE-1 (148359).LE-7 (145918)LE-8(140155) I remember seeing 148358 . @ NASB .VP-21,23 ?never had any problems a/c at all..lost 2/3 engines over that time.mainly a cylinder failure.replced same and continued on..flew into/out of most nas

You didn't mention the other British turbine conversion. this was a Douglas C47b reengined with two Armstrong Siddeley Mamba's. this was done in 1954.

During the late '90s, I dropped my wife at the Kansas City airport one weekend. Before I made the trip back home to Mid-Missouri, I drove by my old Naval Air Reserve drill site, which had been BRAC'd, at the New Century Air Center, or Gardner Kansas Industrial Airport, just Southwest of Olathe, Kansas, and Kansas City. That aerodrome began life as Naval Air Station Olathe back in the '40s, in "The Prairie Navy", as a backup for a Navy Flight & Technical Training base. Well, I rounded the corner nearest the FBO at New Century, and what to my wondering eyes did appear, 2-3 rows of Gooney Birds fitted with turboprop engines! I felt like a cow staring at a new gate! Strangest thing I had ever seen. Later I learned that these were Basler BT-67s.

DC3 Not a dinosaur safest prop history along with savest jet-B727......

Didnt know fairchild did a version of the f27!

The Lee county mosquito district (in sw Florida ,the largest district in the state) had 5 ,D.C.3’s painted yellow and would often spray in formation (which was truly awesome to see) and in around 2010 they sold the 5, and bought 2 balser units, and they now do the same amount of work,better speed,fuel economy, and less stress on the airframe.

Fabulous model collection!

You need a model of the Martin Mars.

I worked for General Motors at the Milford proving grounds from 1967 to 1974. I rode on GM's corporate airline a couple of times. They made regular stops at the cities where GM had manufacturing facilities in the upper Midwest. I remember a very spacious aircraft interior with small desks at most seats. It was a prop type airplane. Later on I always wondered what type of aircraft this was. Does anyone know the answer?

You didn't mention the AC-47 "Spooky" gunship flown very successfully during the Vietnam Conflict. It was a derivative of the DC-3 and was also known as, "Puff the Magic Dragon".

I flew the DC-3 for several years into and out of Central and South America as well as in and out of Florida/Texas. It is my favorite aircraft of all time.

The plane has a solid airframe, unpressurize sistem, don't put stress, engines are very well if it maintened correctly, of course turbine engine inmortalize the plane for ever, but cost a fortune the convertion.

I was so happy when I found your channel. Love the poor mans hanger. I built models' of many of those growing up. Thank you for sharing these wonderful aircraft with us viewers.

I am suprised you did not cover the conversion by the South African air force as turbo dak's! they got retired last month (09/24) but they have been flying for a long time!

kzbin.info/www/bejne/rpO6cmOpib1jhZIsi=v6L9CF23KPhNBaOC

Here in the Netherlands Aviodrome museum there is a working L-049 kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2HCnnWoo5WMi9Esi=ubiPlzYsCWa9MNHd There are runup videos here on youtube to

These aircraft are incredible. Someday they will all be gone. That's tragic 😢

Ok, so updating the DC3/C47 with the PT6 gives a cheaper alternative to more modern types, wouldn't doing the same with the DC6 and DC4 be an option? There are plenty of those about.

I also heard the Tri-turbo 3 had an insurmountable issue that was a major contributing factor to it being unsuccessful: the cockpit/nose section of the DC3 isn’t exactly airtight, and exhaust/engine fumes from the nose engine entering the cockpit was a problem they were never able to resolve.

I thought the Tri-turbo 3 ended up at Basler, parked across the road just down the street from the Basler facility. I understand the tail of it was pulled off and sent to Antarctica to be used in the repair of another Basler 3 that was crash landed in a mountain there. It is quite the story as to what was involved in the recovery of this aircraft (why it had to be recovered, planning, preparation, logistics, and repair/recovery.)