The DC-3 Still Soldiers On

[Jacob]

The DC-3 - she just keeps on truckin'...

Log in to a live flight-track website and follow BFL168 as it climbs to 6,000ft and cruises at 155 mph (250 kph) just south of the Arctic Circle. This is a scheduled flight from Yellowknife to Hay River in the Northwest Territories of Canada. You will see that the 45-minute trip, operated by Buffalo Airways, is nearly always on time. What might surprise you is the type of aircraft that makes this daily journey in what can be decidedly harsh conditions. No, not some smart new jet equipped with every latest safety device and digital gizmo, but a 28-seat Douglas DC-3 (twin-piston).

What this means is that the very youngest of the aircraft operated by Buffalo Airways on flight 168 are two years shy of their 70th birthday. And, if all goes to plan, the legendary DC-3 will be the first airliner to fly into its second century.

Altogether about 16,000 American, Russian and Japanese-built Douglas DC-3s, and also C-47 Skytrains, 'Dakotas', Lisunov Li-2s, and Showa and Nakajima L2Ds – the near identical military versions built in the 1940s – took to the air from December 1935. Around 2,000 fly today. Some of these sleek, stressed-metal aircraft are used for fire−fighting and crop spraying, some for rescue work, research and exploration, and others for freight, films, and joy flights.

More here: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20131009-dc3-still-flying-at-70

[mongers]

Nice find, cool website and story.   

So they were designing it just a few years after films became talkies, yet it's still flying today.

edit:
someone will no doubt post about B52s, one of those existing airframes must be around 55 years old ?

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

You can even still buy them "new": http://www.baslerturbo.com/

[grumbler]

My favorite plane inthis series was a "DC-2 1/2" made from the body and starboard wing of a DC-3, and the port wing of a DC-2.  It was cobbled together in China from a total of 5 wrecked planes, during WW2, and flew (IIRC) until the early 1950s.

[The Brain]

Best movie ever: Flight of the Phoenix.

[mongers]

Best movie ever: Flight of the Phoenix.

Obviously the Jimmy Stewart flix, not the remake.

[derspiess]

The Ju52 was also in operation for quite a while, IIRC.

[The Brain]

Best movie ever: Flight of the Phoenix.

Obviously the Jimmy Stewart flix, not the remake.

There's a Jimmy Stewart movie?!

[Ed Anger]

The Ju52 was also in operation for quite a while, IIRC.

DerEdelweiss with the nazi stuff.