A Vintage Veteran In Our Midst
Story and photography by Michael R. Hanneld
On most days, a bit of history is silently tucked away inside a hangar at the McKinnon St. Simons Island Airport. There, owner Lance Toland maintains his Douglas DC-3, a historic aircraft that will soon celebrate her 70th birthday. Her story is an impressive one that began during World War II.
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Michael Hanneld
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Michael Hanneld
On July 10, 1944, the Douglas Aircraft Corporation delivered that very plane, then bearing military serial number 43‑48052, to the US Army Air Forces. Built by Douglas at its plant in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, she was designated as a C‑47A, the military version of the DC‑3 civilian transport. Almost immediately the USAAF turned the plane over to the Royal Air Force, where she received the registration number KG769. That registration number stayed with her when she was subsequently transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force the same year.
During their military service, the Americans officially called the C‑47 the “Skytrain,” while the British and Australians dubbed it the “Dakota,” (probably from the acronym DACoTA for Douglas Aircraft Company Transport Aircraft.) Almost universally, however, servicemen affectionately referred to the C‑47 as the “Gooney Bird.” By the end of World War II, over 10,000 had been built. Some C‑47s remained in active military service, playing a critical role in the 1948 Berlin Airlift and seeing action in the Korean and Vietnam wars.
Sometime after the end of World War II, Trans‑Canada Air Lines acquired this particular C‑47 from the RCAF for use as an airliner, and Trans‑Canada converted her to the civilian DC‑3 configuration. She then received her first civilian registration number, CF‑TEG. Interestingly, in October 2004 Aero Classics, a toy manufacturer, released a 1/400 scale, die-cast metal model of this exact airplane: a Douglas DC ‑3 in Trans‑Canada Air Lines livery and bearing registration number CF-TEG.
The plane was bought by Canada’s Ministry of Transport in 1957 and until about 1976, she served as a flight calibration aircraft, based in Montreal. Her windows were enlarged to afford the test equipment operators better visibility. Around 1976 she was relocated to Ottawa, still with Transport Canada, and she became an experimental test bed for improvements to flight calibration systems.
In the mid-80s, the former “Gooney Bird” got another facelift and took a trip around the world. Kelowna Flightcraft in Kelowna, British Columbia acquired the aircraft in July 1985 to use her for an around the world tour publicizing Expo ’86, a world’s fair held in Vancouver, BC. Prior to embarking, the newly named Odyssey 86 – Spirit of Vancouver was completely overhauled. An external pod housing a weather radar was mounted above the cockpit. The DC-3’s nose was not sufficiently spacious to accommodate the radar, and the original plan to install the radar housing beneath the fuselage was abandoned lest it be mistaken for a bomb! The bulkhead between the cockpit and cabin was removed, and a large fuel tank was installed on the right side of the cabin to increase the plane’s flight range and endurance to about fourteen hours.
On June 10, 1986, the Odyssey 86 and her crew of eleven departed Vancouver and headed to Oakland, California, from which she flew to Honolulu, Hawaii. By the time she completed her round-the-world adventure, Odyssey 86 was sporting a mosaic of stickers from exotic locations all over the globe, including ports-of-call in Australia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Poland, Norway, Germany, and England.
This world-traveler became an American on September 20, 1990, when she was acquired by Classic Airlines Corporation and received her first US civilian registration number, N173RD – a number she still retains. In October 1990 she was registered to International Ship Repair and Marine Services in Land O’Lakes, Florida, and her current owner acquired her in 1994. Today, she is outfitted with an executive cabin and is a frequent visitor at airshows and other aeronautical events.
In honor of Veteran’s Day, we salute this shining silver symbol of aviation history and wartime patriotism that rests right here in our midst.
Michael Hanneld is one of the nine members of the Glynn County Airport Commission. He was appointed to that position in January 2013 after retiring from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). He began his government service with the United States Capitol Police in Washington, DC. He served 19 years with the Capitol Police, followed by an additional 25 years of service with FLETC. Mr. Hanneld attributes his interest in aviation to his father’s influence. His father, who is now nearing his 99th birthday, was an airplane mechanic with the Army Air Force, stationed in Waycross, Georgia during World War II. He raised his son with a health respect for anything that flies, and instilled in him a special fondness for the piston-engine aircraft of the 1940s and early 50s.
