aft cabin
// BEN SAMPSON
THAT’S ALL BROTHER
A recently-rediscovered and restored C-47 took
center stage during this month’s D-Day celebrations
This month was the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the start
of the Allied invasion of Europe that would lead to the
defeat of Nazi Germany 15 months later.
The most frequently reported fact about D-Day is that
it amassed the largest naval fleet ever – 6,939 vessels
carried 139,000 Allied troops to France on June 6, 1944.
But air power also played a key role – 11,500 aircraft flew
over the beaches of Normandy on the same day: 3,500
gliders, 5,000 fighters and 3,000 bombers. Allied Air
Forces flew over 14,000 sorties to maintain air superiority
over northern France. Despite the large number of aircraft
flown, just 127 were lost.
For pilots and airmen D-Day started shortly after
midnight, when more than 800 Douglas C-47 Skytrains
(Dakotas) were used to deliver thousands of
paratroopers behind the German coastal defenses under
the cover of darkness. Their vital mission was to disrupt
and damage enemy supply lines and defenses in
advance of the incoming invasion.
The C-47 was a modified version of the civilian Douglas
DC-3 that included a cargo door, hoist attachment,
strengthened floor, a shortened tail cone for attaching
gliders and an astrodome in the cabin roof. All production
of DC-3s switched to C-47s in factories at Santa Monica
and Long Beach, California and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
at the start of World War II. More than 10,000 were
produced over the course of the war.
The aircraft is seen as the “winged workhorse” of the
invasion and carried most of the 23,000 paratroopers that
landed in France on D-Day. In later years, General Dwight
92 JUNE \\ AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM
Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander of D-Day,
referred to them as the most important piece of
equipment in the Allied Force’s arsenal.
This month, the anniversary celebrations included a
series of flights organized by “Daks Over Normandy”. More
than thirty C-47s and DC-3s travelled to the UK and
France. The activities included a flight to the original drop
zones in Normandy to recreate the paratrooper missions.
Star of the heritage fleet of C-47s was the recently
restored “That’s All Brother”, the lead aircraft in the first
wave of C-47s on the morning of D-Day.
That’s All Brother survived D-Day and served
throughout the remainder of the war. After the war it was
returned to the USA, sold as surplus and used mainly to
haul cargo. Its illustrious past was forgotten and it was
put in a museum. In 2008 it was acquired by Basler Turbo
Conversions in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, a company that
specializes in modernizing C-47s and DC-3s. However a
historian discovered the serial number of the aircraft and
revealed its important history. In 2015 the
Commemorative Air Force, a charitable organization
based in Dallas, Texas, launched a project to restore
That’s All Brother for the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
The restoration required 22,000 man hours of work,
much of it carried out by Basler. This included 1,600 hours
of metal corrosion repair, the rebuilding of the wings and
its mechanical systems. Extensive research revealed the
original paintwork and non-structural components of the
airplane, which were recreated as faithfully as possible to
the original.
After flying in the D-Day celebrations, That’s All Brother
is touring Europe, including an appearance
at the Paris Air Show,
before returning home
to the USA. \\
Mar 1944
First flight
42-92847
Model number
29.11m
Span
19.43m
Length
11,793kg
Gross weight
224mph
Top speed
160mph
Cruising speed
1,600miles
Range at full load
26,400 ft
Ceiling
1,200hp
from each of the two
P&W R-1830 engines
28
Passenger capacity
2 // Paratroopers filled the skies
when they jumped from their C-47s
over southern France in August 1944
3 // American paratroopers board their C-47 for
their jump into Normandy; the black and white invasion
stripes allowed for the quick identification of the aircraft
as part of the invasion force
2
3
1
1// The lead D-Day
airplane was named
after a lyric in a
jazz song
/AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM