Thanks for a great story.
Allen Campbell
Stephen Campbell wrote:
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Smithsonian in the April 2013 issue ran a 2 page article on their DC-3. I remember visiting the museum in 1976 and noting that their exhibit claiming their airplane to be the high time DC-3 was in error. As a dumb kid right out of high school I worked for North Central, later Republic Air, from May 1967 until May of 1977 and was very familiar with NCA's 728. Herman flew proudly on that old bus. I spent countless hours cleaning, polishing and lounging in, on and around 728. It was a dirty old bird, blowing oil and exhaust from the nacelles to the tail. We cleaned and buffed the fuselage and belly until there was no Alclad left. The belly skin was so pitted that it would not polish, plus the jato bottles required additional heat shield aft of the bottles. The jatos were required after the last custom interior, read that heavy executive interior, poor old 728 could no longer take off or maintain altitude with one P&W 1800.
The first wing drop that I assisted on was a marvel tha.... |