Just out of curiosity; WWII airplane

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Michael Loje
Posts: 210
Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:52 pm

Just out of curiosity; WWII airplane

Post by Michael Loje »

Last week, a world war 2 vintage two engine plane with military markings was flying repeatedly over Lakewood. Anyone else see it or know anything about it?
Heather Ramsey
Posts: 126
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:50 pm

Re: Just out of curiosity; WWII airplane

Post by Heather Ramsey »

Saw somebody say the same thing in my Facebook feed, but unfortunately he just had the same question.
Michael Loje
Posts: 210
Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:52 pm

Re: Just out of curiosity; WWII airplane

Post by Michael Loje »

Hmmmm. At least it wasn't just my imagination.
Roy Pitchford
Posts: 686
Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2008 8:38 pm

Re: Just out of curiosity; WWII airplane

Post by Roy Pitchford »

I saw it too. Looked like a B-17 from my vantage point (4 engines rather than 2) if that helps anyone find out why it was flying around.

Image

If it was 2 engines, then I'm not sure.
http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/ww2-us-military-bomber-aircraft.asp

A-20 Havoc, B-26 Invader, B-18 Bolo, B-25 Mitchell...
Image
Stan Austin
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Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:02 pm
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Re: Just out of curiosity; WWII airplane

Post by Stan Austin »

I saw it. It had two engines. I thought it was a Coast Guard plane because they use the slower prop planes for searches.
Gary Rice
Posts: 1651
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2006 9:59 pm
Location: Lakewood

Re: Just out of curiosity; WWII airplane

Post by Gary Rice »

I saw it too.

It appears to have been a Douglas C-47 Dakota/Skytrain aircraft, developed from the pre-WWII DC-3 passenger aircraft and used by the hundreds as troop carrier/paratrooper and cargo aircraft in WWII and Korea. These were used as late as the Vietnam War as rapid-firing gun platforms. At that time, they were known as AC-47 "Spooky".

(I used to LOVE to build model planes!)

Whether these aircraft might still be in use by the Coast Guard around here, I could not say, but these planes were real work horses, so that could be a real possibility.
David Westlake
Posts: 36
Joined: Mon Nov 09, 2009 12:33 pm

Re: Just out of curiosity; WWII airplane

Post by David Westlake »

Gary Rice wrote:It appears to have been a Douglas C-47 Dakota/Skytrain aircraft, developed from the pre-WWII DC-3 passenger aircraft and used by the hundreds as troop carrier/paratrooper and cargo aircraft in WWII and Korea. These were used as late as the Vietnam War as rapid-firing gun platforms. At that time, they were known as AC-47 "Spooky".
(I used to LOVE to build model planes!)

I also saw it about three times on Tuesday last week. It was flying very slow, and fairly low. I'm pretty sure it had two props and looked much like the C-47 in your pictures, but it was all white. It looked like more of a restored post-war Air Force plane rather than a current Coast Guard one. Didn't see any evidence of Coast Guard markings. Cool looking plane.
Stephen Eisel
Posts: 3281
Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2007 9:36 pm

Re: Just out of curiosity; WWII airplane

Post by Stephen Eisel »

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