The DC-3. A design from the 30s ... and still going strong. This one isn't even one of the re-engined ones where they put turbo-props on 'em. Nope - just the 'ole radials.
Check out what they are doing with a 70-year old design still - the Maritime Patrol BT-67 is an amazing aircraft.
Sigh.
Now, if we could only build ships like this...
ReplyDeleteI have read that there is still no truely satisfactory replacement for the DC-3.
ReplyDeleteI hope you people noticed that it is Badgers that are making the BT-67!
ReplyDelete"Fudge-factor" over-built in the slide-rule pre-computer days, it's like will NEVER again be reproduced in an age when computers can design right to the edge of safety as far as airframe life-time and metal-fatigue go when cost factors reign.
ReplyDeleteAnd Byron, you COULD if you threw away the computers and forced everyone to design "just in case."
ReplyDelete3 facts:
ReplyDelete1. one C-47 over Burma was rammed by Zero, blowing off most of vertical stabilizer, survived and landed
2. another C-47 lost wing in bombardment, was patched with DC-2 wings and flied as DC-2 1/2
3. not a single Specfor outpost in Vietnam fell to VC/NVA while AC-47 was circling overhead...
Oh Byron, we could and did. We just don't want to anymore.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention those tough little ships we're going to practically give away to the Pakistani's...
ReplyDeleteWhat use are they if they aren't "transfornational"?
ReplyDeleteIf it's stupid, but it works, it ain't stupid.
ReplyDeleteURR, I'm not a naval guy - isn't that destroyer design from World War II?
ReplyDeleteI just ask because that ship reminds me of the two destroyers knocked out in the drydock that also accommodated the Pennsylvania, at Pearl Harbor.
It is USS Gearing, namesake of a class of almost 100, (similar but longer than Sumner-class). Served from mid-1944 through the 1980s. FRAMed extensively after twenty years and was still the backbone of the US destroyer force into the 1970s. Tough, powerful little ships that would tear up an LCS even now. Mexico still has one in commission.
ReplyDeleteOM, The ships that you're referring to are CASSIN and DOWNES which were of the MAHAN Class which preceded the SUMNER/GEARING class by a couple of destroyer designs.
ReplyDeleteURR, Actually one GEARING, USS CONE (DD 866), remained in US service as a Naval Reserve Force training ship until 1982. Some members of Congress raised a fuss because the Navy was decommissioning all the NRF ships (which were all FRAMs by that time) without replacements and CONE was essentially "held hostage" because of this. The Navy eventually gave in and transferred a small number of KNOX-Class FFs to the NRF in the mid-80s and followed with several low numbered FFG-7s in the late '80s.
Summer of 1968, I was newly assigned Ensign to AUW Det. Master Chief and I needed to fly from NAS Brunswick to NAS Norfolk for Torpedo School. Both of us dressed in Tropical Khaki Long on a 95 degree, 90% humidity day. Master Chief had wool overcoat under his arm. I asked, "what do you have that thing for?". He responded, "you'll see". At 10,000 feet I understood the need for a wool overcoat.
ReplyDeleteThe DC3 and DC4 were (are) great aircraft :) .
ReplyDeleteRead these memories of DC3's
http://www.aircraftphotos.biz/memories-pages/memories.html
Been reading Pournelle again, have we? :)
ReplyDeletePournelle may have coined it, but he'd have to have used a time machine to do so. I've heard that line all my life.
ReplyDeleteI flew on one recently to go fishing in Alaska. It was a treat. Nothing like seeing oil spraying out of the engine and back onto the cowling. Norfmal operating procedure. I have to admit in the photo it looks like both engines are out, propellers have stopped rotating and the plane is trailing smoke. Optical illusion (I hope).
ReplyDelete