While researching this story I found myself getting more interested in the 247 story and started one of the old Williams 247s. I have a set of Pointerdog decal sets for the Western Air Express markings. Western got the 247s indirectly from United as United started to cast loose their 247s in favor of the new DC-3s. While not qualifying for this campaign, I thought I would share this build as well as it is an important part of the DC story.
This book filled in a lot of the gaps in the DC story. KLM the Dutch airline entered a stock DC-2 in the McRobertson 1934 race from England to Australia. They flew their regular route with mail & passengers making stops out of their way and at one point even had to backtrack to pickup a wayward passenger. Despite this, the DC-2 beat all other competitors save the customer built De Haviland Comet racer designed just for this race. A modified 247 placed third.
This section below came from the wonderful book above. It should probably be noted that it was not just British military planes that were outperformed by the two airliners. A=The American military was flying P-12s & P-26s at the time!
Paul
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Hello everybody, not much posted here but lots going on at the workbench. First to the war time C-47 to pre-war DC-3 conversion. I really loved what Airfix has done with their C-47. It’s a great kit of a C-47, but will need some work to be a pre-war DC-3. The early DC-3s used the Wright R-1320 single row 9 cyl. engine which had a different cowling to the P&W R-1830 14 cyl. used by some airlines and almost all military versions.
Happily, I had the Academy B-17C kit in stock and it had two sets of cowlings. To build the C the short cord cowls are wanted and the long cord cowls are surplus and those will be useful for the DC-3. They will need the openings in the front expanded and the cooling gills removed. More on this when I get to it.
I found a set of pre-war R-1820s in resin that ought to be about right for a circa 1937/8 TWA DC-3. They fit the B-17 cowlings like a glove!
Once the workability of such a conversion had been established, it was time to start construction. The C-47s had two crew members added compared to the airline versions. The forward baggage compartment was modified for the use of a navigator & radio man. None of this can be seen if the baggage door is closed so I just assembled it to lend extra strength for the cutting and sanding that will be needed later.
I have no info on cockpit colors so a generic greenish gray was chosen for the flight deck. The C-47 cabin is bare but for troop seats so this area was painted a dark gray to impede visibility through the windows.
The C-47 cargo doors will be puttied over and sanded smooth and I will have to figure out how to scribe an airline door just aft of the widows.
More on this later along with more of the progress on the companion Boeing 247 & Ford Trimotor later.
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A bit more work done on the Airfix new tool C-47 to pre-war DC-3 conversion. A lot of time has been spent with Tamiya putty & wet sanding. We are making progress!
I had originally thought about trying to scribe an airline door into the plastic/putty. Then I found that decals of an airline door are available from Draw Decals. I have ordered a set. This will solve one problem allowing the scribing to be just straight lines although still over a curved surface. The next thing to figure is how to know where the lines will terminate so as not to get into the door. BTW, the trooper door of the C-47 is aft of the airline door so it can’t just be modified. I took a look at the Italeri kit which offers a DC-3 door insert panel but they did NOT relocated the position. As near as I can tell, both the DC-3 door & the C-47 cargo door which contains the trooper door are hinged to the same frame.
Paul
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