Aboard the Flagship Detroit: The Oldest Flying DC-3

My neighbor, who will be 102 in june, was a stewardess for AA in 1947. If you ever come to southern maine, I bet her uniform will still fit !

I am 91 - I remember the plane well - love it

I was flying around Greeneville (Tennessee) Municipal Airport (KGCY) doing some pattern work this afternoon (5-5-2024) and got to see this beautiful aircraft arrive (from the air). It was an amazing and beautiful sight to see this plane land…especially from the air! 🇺🇸

Nice to see a genuine pre war civilian DC3 with the Wright Cyclone engines and right side cabin door. Virtually every other DC3 still flying is actually a converted C47 or C53 wartime built cargo/paratrooper converted to a DC3 after the war.

When I was a youngster the sound of radial engines was a common everyday occurrence.

76 yo here. I remember flying in a DC3 from Adelaide, South Australia to Port Lincoln as a child in the late 1950s. The sick bags were well used as it was a rough and noisy flight. Eventually replaced by Fokker F27 Friendships.

I got a ride in the Flagship over Myrtle Beach in 2018 during an air show. Such an icon airplane and great experience. I’ve also toured the Piedmont Airlines DC-3 but it no longer flies.

The good ole days, when airplanes had curtains!😊

my first airplane flight was on a DC3,,,decades ago! Man loved it and what a sound.we add to cross the St Laurence River at 30 milles during winter! it was scared . i remember as it was yesterday,Gervais

So much history was made in those planes!

So beautiful plane that as an artist, I decided to do an artwork with it. A early type with the same orange accents on nose and engine covers, typical of American Airways. I drew the DC 3 at Hobby airport (TX) with a orange and black Packard 734 roadster. Nice video. Keep up the good work !

What a perfect job of restoration they did on this like-new DC-3. This clip (where was it taken, please?) brings back memories of some of my own DC-3 flights: an Air Force flight from LAX up to Vandenberg AFB in 1959 as a cub reporter covering a space launch; a vomit-comet Aspen Airways flight in 1967, and barnstorming the 1976 Oregon Democratic presidential primary with candidate Jerry Brown (who later upgraded -- to a DC-4). DC-3s are beautiful and strongly built. Last I heard, a few years aro, thousands still were flying in many countries. I'm proud to say that I took flying lessons at Santa Monica Municipal Airport, where many of the DC-3s were built by Douglas ((which also reminds me that I once took a helicopter ride in L.A. with pilot Holly Douglas, granddaughter of aviation pioneer Donald Douglas Sr., who oversaw DC-3 design and production.))

I had one memorable flight on a DC-3. I had just joined the US Air Force in Coral Gables, Fla. induction center. I was booked on a Boing 707 flight from Miami International Airport with stops at Tampa, New Orleans, and Houston going on to Los Angeles. I transferred to a flight on the DC-3 landing at San Antonio airport. Flying in the evening out of Houston towards San Antonio was the coldest flight I have ever made. I was not prepared having only a light wind breaker jacket to protect me from the cold air coming in from a nozzle right above my head. It was early October and for a Florida boy, I found it very uncomfortable.

The sound of the engines is so relaxing. I miss the piston aircraft . I loved it when a four engine went over the house when I was in bed as a child.

I flew on a Lake Central DC-3 from Lafayette, Indiana to OHare in probably 1959. What a thrill!!!

I helped put the interior in this plane,when I worked for AA. It made a flyby with one of our 777 on its wing. It looked good.

My dad started as a ramper at MDY after the war. He said he probably slung some bags into this bird back in the day. He spent 42 years at AA. Saw a lot of change.

Inaugurated an era of air travel, "Comfortable, Fast, and Safe"

I think the DC 3 was the best and strongest aircraft built, they would land on unimproved run ways or just open fields.

I have 1,000 hours flying DC-3s and C-47s in the 1970s. Hard to believe a commercial airline did not spec out their plane with wing and tail deicer boots. American DC-3s all had the 9 cylinder Wright engines while most other airlines opted for the better 14 cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engines.