Panther_99FS
Retired SOH Administrator
Enjoy folks!
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The Staff of SOH
Crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a 1930s Airliner
- Thread starter Panther_99FS
- Start date
Bomber_12th
SOH-CM-2025
It was fun to follow the 15 US-based DC-3's/C-47's/C-53's/C-41 that flew the Atlantic back in late May/early June to participate in the D-Day 75th and Berlin Airlift 70th anniversary commemorations.
I really liked what one of the pilots, Doug Rozendaal, stated about the experience - that although they flew the same aircraft, on the same route, and reached the same destination, what they did had nothing in common with what those kids who did it 75 years ago went through, and had nothing in common with the courage those kids had. Doug spoke about in the aircraft he flew, there were 50,000 flight hours of experience between him and his co-pilot, where as the kids back in the 40's would have been lucky to have had as much as 500 hrs between them, upon setting off on the journey. While they had several GPS's to make navigating simple, back in the 40's they were of course relying on a brand new navigator, fresh out of training, to guide them across. Three different computer weather models were continuously monitored in the months, weeks and days ahead of the flight to ensure there would be no weather-related issues. Also, the crews flying the route this summer had the advantage of knowing ahead of time where the ice was and wasn't, and they knew with absolute certainty that they would be making the correct turn and were flying up the correct fjord to make the tricky approach into Narsarsuaq (back in the 40's, if misjudged, or the wrong turn would be taken, they'd end up in the rocks). He said it turned out to be an extremely straight forward and easy operation.
I really liked what one of the pilots, Doug Rozendaal, stated about the experience - that although they flew the same aircraft, on the same route, and reached the same destination, what they did had nothing in common with what those kids who did it 75 years ago went through, and had nothing in common with the courage those kids had. Doug spoke about in the aircraft he flew, there were 50,000 flight hours of experience between him and his co-pilot, where as the kids back in the 40's would have been lucky to have had as much as 500 hrs between them, upon setting off on the journey. While they had several GPS's to make navigating simple, back in the 40's they were of course relying on a brand new navigator, fresh out of training, to guide them across. Three different computer weather models were continuously monitored in the months, weeks and days ahead of the flight to ensure there would be no weather-related issues. Also, the crews flying the route this summer had the advantage of knowing ahead of time where the ice was and wasn't, and they knew with absolute certainty that they would be making the correct turn and were flying up the correct fjord to make the tricky approach into Narsarsuaq (back in the 40's, if misjudged, or the wrong turn would be taken, they'd end up in the rocks). He said it turned out to be an extremely straight forward and easy operation.
gray eagle
SOH-CM-2025
Is there further coverage of this journey on YouTube? Didn't see them landing at ultimate destination.