This video is a follow-on to our 4-part Airline Industry Woeful Start series. Parts 3 and 4 focused on the emergence and subsequent dominance of the piston-powered Douglas DC-3 (and military C-47) out of the tumultuous airline industry developmental period of the 1930’s, and its role over the following two decades as the catalyst for the explosive growth of military air transport and the commercial airlines to what they are today.
In this video we show that many of the 90-year-old piston DC-3’s shed their pistons to receive a new life as modern turboprop-powered machines. This was experimented with in the early 1950’s and again in the 1970’s and 1980’s, but began to see real growth after around 1990 which continues to this day. We summarize the history of such conversions culminating with our operational video of an early Basler BT-67 DC-3 conversion on a demonstration flight. The BT-67 remains in limited production with approximately 70 built to date.
Yes, after 90 years it appears the DC-3 will now be around until further notice—whenever that is.
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Please contact me, John A. Reed with any useful information or simply if you want to discuss vintage aviation topics at:
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