Douglas DC-3/C-47B "Skytrain"

Douglas C-47B "Skytrain" is a low-wing twin-engine transport aircraft with retractable classic landing gear. The DC-3 ("Douglas Commercial") was the culmination of a development effort that began with a request by Transcontinental and Western Airlines ("TWA") to the Design Bureau of Donald Douglas to design and build an aircraft that would enable "TWA" to compete with "United Airlines". Soon, based on the designs of the DC-1 and DC-2, a prototype aircraft flew on December 17, 1935 with the designation DC-3.

Soon after, numerous airline orders came in, and the DC-3 is one of the aircraft most credited for popularizing air travel in the US. Fleets of DC-3s, carried by several American airlines, paved the way for modern air travel and the replacement of the train as the preferred means of transportation across the American continent. He could cross the American continent in about 15 hours, with three stops for refueling, which was much shorter than a multi-day train journey.

This civilian version was produced until 1943 when the company was forced to turn to the production of military variants of the aircraft due to large military orders. A little more than 600 aircraft were produced. After the civil variant intended for airlines, in 1938 the US Army found use for the first military version of the DC-3 under the designation C-41. Not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 23, 1941, the most famous military version of the C-47 "Skytrain" ("Sky Train") appeared, which differed from the civilian DC-3 in a number of modifications, including a cargo door, a reinforced floor, a shortened tail cone for towing gliders, etc. During World War II, the armed forces of many countries used the C-47 to transport troops, cargo and wounded. More than 10.000 aircraft were produced in California and Oklahoma by August 1945 and this military variant was used in over 50 countries, including Yugoslavia. It played an important role during the Second World War, especially in the Pacific.

After the war, it was used to supply Berlin, during the blockade in 1948, but also in the Korean and Vietnam wars. After the Second World War, many C-47s represented war surpluses, which were obtained by various airlines, which contributed to the development of air traffic throughout the world. It used grass fields for takeoff and landing, which was of great importance due to the underdeveloped airport infrastructure.

The first "Dakota", as it is popularly called here after the nickname for the planes delivered to the English RAF, was introduced in 1944 in the Yugoslav Air Force, when a group of our mechanics serviced an American C-47 that made an emergency landing near Ljubovija. After the war, as a help from the West, JAT received several C-47s that were converted into the DC-3 passenger variant, and in 1953 its mass introduction into the Yugoslav Air Force began, which used a total of 41 aircraft of this type. It carried 25 soldiers and paratroopers or up to 2.000 kg of cargo. Military aircrafts were decommissioned at the end of 1976.

The museum's example (ev.no.71214, fab.no.16472/33220) was introduced to the Yugoslav Air Force on March 8, 1954 in the 119th Air Transport Regiment. On September 24, 1976, it flew from Niš to Belgrade airport, where it was decommissioned and handed over to the Museum. During operational use, the aircraft was converted into a version for land mapping, which is why it was equipped with a camera mount in the cargo area, oxygen equipment for camera operators and special radio navigation devices.