The Douglas C-47 that led the D-Day invasion came within a chance glance of being cut up and re-engined with turboprops. Sitting in the boneyard of Basler Turbo Conversions, right across the runway from EAA Headquarters on Wittman Field in Oshkosh, Wis., the historic “Gooney Bird” was set to get the modernization treatment when someone cross-referenced the data plate and realized how close the epic transport had come to going down the wrong historical road. Now, thanks in part to a lightning-fast Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) is restoring the aircraft to flying condition in its June 6, 1944 configuration.
On that fateful morning more than 70 years ago, 13,000 paratroopers leaped into France from transports five hours before the main attack began. This exact C-47 (militarized DC-3) bore the name “That’s All, Brother”—amessage to Adolf Hitler that his journey toward world domination was about to come to an end.
That’s All Brother will have a new mission for the 21st century. It will tour the country as a “flying classroom” to allow school children and others to sit in the web paratrooper seats, see the jump lights, smell the hot oil from the radial engines and otherwise experience living history. The CAF has also set a goal of going “back in time” and having That’s All Brother lead a flyover in Normandy, France, on the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019.
