This December 17th came and went without notice, but it was a special day. That day in 1935 marked the first flight of the venerable Douglas DC-3.
Five years later, on Christmas Eve 1940, Delta flew its first revenue DC-3 flight with “Ship 41.”
Since I’ve been lucky enough to fly this fully restored, original in every detail, DC-3, I thought I’d write a little about the “Ship 41” in Delta’s Heritage Museum.
“Ship 41” was actually the second of five DC-3s purchased by Delta. The first arrived November 29, 1940 and was used to train pilots for the next DC-3s to arrive. “Ship 41” arrived on December 23, 1940 and carried passengers the next day. Three more planes were delivered in the next 10 days. These and the additional DC-3s Delta purchased flew in revenue service until the early 1960s.
Here are a few pictures of Delta’s award winning, 1940 DC-3 known as “Ship 41.” I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.
Tailwinds, Robin
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Just pondering a thought about when Ship 102 will become the” new” Ship 41 in another fifty years. Its a joyous occation for history books and an awesome look into the future.
January 23rd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Ship 102 also had a very special day in December as well, Dec. 15, 1982 is when Ship 102 was presented to Delta and went into service. Both Ship 41 and Ship 102 can be seen at the Delta Air Hertitage Museum in ATL.
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:20 pm
[...] currently in the Delta Heritage Museum. We’ll have to get down there. Until then, they have pictures. DC-3s are still in use in a few [...]
January 28th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
When a bunch of us attended the 50th Anniversary festivities in the late 1970s, the first brand new L1011-500 was on display. As part of the displays, you could see inflight meals during the ages. Even though this was during the time of Royal Service with big salad bowls and beer muffins, the fried chicken dinners served on the DC-3s looked the tastiest
Brian
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:29 am
There’s a reason that the first flight of the Douglas DC-3 was on Dec. 17th. That is the anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight.
February 4th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Thanks Gargoyle. I wish I’d remembered that when I was writing the post. That’s a key bit of info…
tailwinds, Robin