As much as I love photography I love aviation, especially Military aircraft, even more. Friday I had to drive dad to Birmingham’s VA Hospital. After we left the VA we drove by the Airport and I got quite a few shots of the outdoor exhibits at the Southern Museum of Flight. This here may not be the best shot of the day, but it is of my favorite aircraft.

This Plane goes by a lot of names. This particular one is a RFD-6Q (Radar Countermeasures), but no matter what designation they went by they all rolled out of the Douglas factory as a variation of the DC-3 Gooneybird. My first time around the majestic Gooneybird was at Redstone Airfield where dad spent nearly half of his 21 years in the Army. I remember well the  C-47 Gooneybirds in MICOM (Missile Command) colors. Them along with my absolute favorite the CV-2B Caribou with the MICOM shield on the side were the most beautiful things to me especially when I saw them flying.

I was 5 years old when dad retired from the Army and I only visited the airfield a few times after he retired. I am not sure when they got rid of them, but I oftent hought about them over the years. When I was in my mid 20s I really got an up close and personal relationship with the Gooneybird.

Growing up I always dreamed of being a pilot due to various reasons closest I have come was being a forklift driver loading and unloading auto parts  on various aircraft and trailer trucks. While I never got to ride on one due to bad luck and timing I loaded and unloaded hundreds at Huntsville international Airport’s freight transfer yard. The one plane that came in the most was a Douglas DC-3 flying out of Canada. It had been modified since it rolled off the line, but nothing unusal about that. The Unusual part about the DC-3 Gooneybird is they have been flying almost since Orville and Wilbur took that first flight at Kitty Hawk. The first DC-3 flew 76 years ago on the 32nd Anniversary of the Wright Brother’s flight. Out of the more than 16,000 built in the 30s and 40s as of 1998 over 400 were still flying and the oldest one still flying today was built in 1936.

During World War 2 one of the many jobs it did was 102 US Army C-47s took part in the Berlin Airlift hauling over 300tons of food and supplies daily. During Korea and Vietnam it did everything from haul troops and cargo to strapping on some guns changing it to a AC-47 Spooky able of putting a 20mm slug in every square foot of a football field with a 3-second burst from its three electrically operated miniguns. These days they aren’t used much for hauling people or laying down fire, but several still get a work out hauling cargo round the world. Like the old saying goes you can crash a GooneyBird, but you can’t wear em out. When we are lucky to find a car that will last 20 years it is amazing to think of an aircraft still in the air as more than a flying Museum over 75 years after it rolled out of the factory. With the DC-3 I would not be surprised to see them still being workhorses in 2035 on the 100th anniversary of their first flight.