Time didn't weary her, but EU H&S rules are grounding the old "war horse"

[shortliner]

The DC-3 has been grounded by EU health and safety rules!

 

It groaned, it protested, it rattled, it ran hot, it ran cold, it ran rough, it staggered along on hot days and scared you half to death.

 

''Its wings flexed and twisted in a horrifying manner, it sank back to earth with a great sigh of relief. But it flew and it flew and it flew.'

 

This is the memorable description by Captain Len Morgan, a former pilot with Braniff Airways, of the unique challenge of flying a Douglas DC-3.

 

It has carried more passengers than any plane in history, but -

Now the DC-3 has been grounded by EU health and safety rules.

 

The DC-3 served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and was a favourite among pilots!

 

For more than 70 years, the aircraft known through a variety of nicknames --- the Doug, the Dizzy, Old Methuselah, the Gooney Bird, the Grand Old Lady --- but which to most of us is simply the Dakota --- has been the workhorse of the skies.

(The name, incidentally, is an acronym for Douglas Aircraft Company Transport Aircraft.)

With its distinctive nose-up profile when on the ground and extraordinary capabilities in the air, it transformed passenger travel, and served in just about every military conflict from World War II onward.

 

Now the Douglas DC-3 --- the most successful plane ever made, which first took to the skies just over 30 years after the Wright Brothers' historic first flight --- is to carry passengers in Britain for the last time.

 

Romeo Alpha and Papa Yankee, the last two passenger-carrying Dakotas in the UK, are being forced into retirement because of --- yes it is true--- health & safety rules.

 

Their owner, Coventry-based Air Atlantique, has reluctantly decided it would be too expensive to fit the required emergency- escape slides and weather-radar systems required by new European rules for their 65-year-old planes, which served with the RAF during the war.

 

Mike Collett, the company's chairman, says: "We're very saddened." The end of the passenger-carrying British Dakotas is a sad chapter in the story of the most remarkable aircraft ever built, surpassing all others in length of service, dependability and achievement.

 

It has been a luxury airliner, transport plane, bomber, fighter and flying hospital, and introduced millions of people to the concept of air travel.

 

It has flown more miles, broken more records, carried more passengers and cargo, accumulated more flying time and performed more 'impossible' feats than any other plane in history, even in these days of super-jumbos that can circle the world non-stop.

 

Indeed, at one point, 90 percent of the world's air traffic was operated by DC-3s.

More than 10,500 DC-3s have been built since the prototype was rolled out to astonished onlookers at Douglas's Santa Monica factory in 1935.

 

With its eagle beak, large square windows and sleek metal fuselage, it was luxurious beyond belief, in contrast to the wood-and-canvas bone shakers of the day, where passengers had to huddle under blankets against the cold.

 

Even in the 1930s, the early Dakotas had many of the comforts we take for granted today, like on-board loos and a galley that could prepare hot food. Early menus included wild-rice pancakes with blueberry syrup, served on bone china with silver service.

 

For the first time, passengers were able to stand- up and walk- around while the plane was airborne.

 

But the design had one vital feature, ordered by pioneering aviator Charles Lindbergh, who was a director of TWA, which placed the first order for the plane.

The DC-3 should always, Lindbergh directed, be able to fly on one- engine.

 

Pilots have always loved it, not just because of its rugged reliability but because, with no computers on board, it is the epitome of 'flying by the seat-of-the-pants'.

One aviator memorably described the Dakota as a 'collection of parts flying in loose formation', and most reckon they can land it pretty well on a postage stamp.

 

Captain Len Morgan says: 'The Dakota could lift virtually any load strapped to its back and carry it anywhere and in any weather safely.'

 

It is the very human scale of the plane that has so endeared it to successive generations. With no pressurization in the cabin, it flies low and slow. And unlike modern jets, it's still possible to see the world go by from the cabin of a Dakota.

 

As a former Pan Am stewardess puts it: "From the windows, you seldom look upon a flat, hazy, distant surface to the world."Instead, you see the features of the earth --- curves of mountains, colours of lakes, cars moving on roads, ocean waves crashing on shores, and cloud formations as a sea of popcorn and powder puffs.'

 

But it is for heroic feats in military service that the legendary plane is most distinguished. It played a major role in the invasion of Sicily, the D-Day landings, the Berlin Airlift, and the Korean & Vietnam wars, performing astonishing feats along the way.

 

When General Eisenhower was asked what he believed were the foundation stones for America's success in World War II, he named the bulldozer, the jeep, the half-ton truck, and the Dakota.

 

When the Burma Road was captured by the Japanese and the only way to send supplies into China was over the mountains at 19,000 ft, the Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek said: 'Give me 50 DC-3s, and the Japanese can have the Burma Road.'

 

In 1945, a Dakota broke the world record for a flight with an engine out of action, travelling for 1,100 miles from Pearl Harbor to San Diego, with just one- propeller working.

 

Another in RNZAF service lost a wing after colliding mid-air with a Lockheed bomber. Defying all the rules of aerodynamics, and with only a stub remaining, the plane landed, literally, on a wing and a prayer at Whenuapai Airbase.

 

Once, a Dakota pilot carrying paratroops across the Channel to France heard an enormous bang. He went aft to find that half the plane had been blown away, including part of the rudder. With engines still turning, he managed to skim the wave-tops before finally making it to safety.

 

Another wartime Dakota was rammed by a Japanese fighter that fell to earth, while the American crew returned home in their severely damaged --- but still airborne ---plane, and were given the distinction of 'downing an enemy aircraft'.

 

Another DC-3 was peppered with 3,000 bullets in the wings and fuselage by Japanese fighters. It made it back to base, was repaired with canvas patches and glue, and then sent back into the air.

 

During the evacuation of Saigon in 1975, a Dakota crew managed to cram aboard 98 Vietnamese orphans, although the plane was supposed to carry no more than 30 passengers.

 

In addition to its rugged military service, it was the DC-3 which transformed commercial -passenger flying in the post-war years.

 

Easily converted to a passenger plane, it introduced the idea of affordable air travel to a world which had previously seen it as exclusively for the rich.

 

Flights across America could be completed in about 15 hours (with three stops for refuelling), compared with the previous reliance on short hops in commuter aircraft during the day and train- travel overnight.

 

It made the world a smaller place, gave people the opportunity for the first time to see previously inaccessible destinations, and became a romantic symbol of travel.

The DC-3's record has not always been perfect.

 

After the war, military-surplus Dakotas were cheap, often poorly maintained, and pushed to the limit by their owners.

 

Accidents were frequent. One of the most tragic happened in 1962, when Zulu Bravo, a Channel Airways flight from Jersey, slammed into a hillside on the Isle of Wight in thick fog. All three crew and nine of the 14 passengers died, but the accident changed the course of aviation history.

 

The local radar, incredibly, had been switched off because it was a Sunday. The national air safety rules were changed to ensure it never happened again.

 

'The DC-3 was, and is, unique,' wrote the novelist and aviation writer Ernest Gann, 'since no other flying machine has cruised every sky known to mankind, been so admired, cherished, glamorized, known the touch of so many pilots and sparked so many tributes.

 

"It was without question the most successful aircraft ever built, and even in this jet-age, it seems likely that the surviving DC-3s may fly about their business forever.."

 

This may be no exaggeration. Next month, Romeo Alpha and Papa Yankee begin a farewell tour of Britain's airports before carrying their final passengers at the International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford on July 16.

 

But after their retirement, there will still be Dakotas flying in the farthest corners of the world, kept going with love, dedication and sheer ingenuity.

 

Nearly three-quarters of a century after they first entered service, it's still possible to get a Dakota ride somewhere in the world.

 

I recently took a DC-3 into the heart of the Venezuelan jungle --- to the "Lost World" made famous in the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is one of the most remote regions on the planet --- where the venerable old planes have long been used because they can be manoeuvred like birds in the wild terrain.

 

It's a scary experience being strapped into a torn canvas chair, raked back at an alarming angle (walking along the aisle of a stationary Dakota is like climbing a steep hill) as you wait for take-off.

 

The engines spew smoke and oil as they shudder into life with what DC-3 fans describe as 'music', but to me sounded like the hammering of a thousand pneumatic-drills.

 

But soon you are skimming the legendary flat-topped mountains protruding from the jungle below, purring over wild rivers and the Angel Falls, the world's highest rapids. Suddenly the ancient plane drops like a stone to a tiny landing strip just visible in the trees.

 

The pilot dodges bits of dismantled DC-3 engines scattered on the ground and avoids a stray dog as he touches down with scarcely a bump. How did he do it without air traffic control and the minimum of navigational aids? ''C'est facile --- it's easy," he shrugged.

 

Today, many DC-3s live-on throughout the world as crop-sprayers, surveillance patrols, air freighters in forgotten African states, and even luxury executive transports. One, owned by a Houston lumber company, had mink-covered door- knobs, while another belonging to a Texas rancher had sofas and reclining chairs upholstered with the skins of unborn calves..

 

In Jaipur, India, a Dakota is licensed for flying wedding ceremonies.

 

Even when they have ended their aerial lives, old Dakotas have become mobile homes, hamburger stands and hen houses. One even serves as a football team changing room.

 

Clark Gable's private DC-3, which once ferried chums such as John and Bobby Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and Ronald Reagan, is in a theme park in San Marino. But don't assume it won't run again. Some of the oldest hulks have been put back in the skies.

 

The ancient piston-engines are replaced by modern turboprops, and many a pilot of a modern jet has been astonished to find a Dakota alongside him on the climb away from the runway.

 

So what is the enduring secret of the DC-3? David Egerton, professor of the history of science and technology at Imperial College, London, says we should rid our minds of the idea that the most recent inventions are always the best.

 

He said 'The very fact that the DC-3 is still around and performing a useful role in the world is a powerful reminder that the latest and most expensive technology is not always the one that changes history'.

 

It's long been an aviation axiom that 'the only replacement for the DC-3 is another DC-3'. So it's fortunate that at least one seems likely to be around for a very long time to come.

 

In 1946, a DC-3 on a flight from Vienna to Pisa crashed into the top of the Rosenlaui Glacier in the Swiss Alps. The aircraft was not damaged and all the passengers were rescued, but it quickly began to disappear as a blinding snowstorm raged. Swiss engineers have calculated that it will take 600 years for it to slide- down inside the glacier and emerge at the bottom.

 

The most asinine ruling ever dreamed up by a nightmare bureaucracy!!! I especially appreciate the part requiring "escape slides". On its belly, you can step down from the aircraft floor to the ground.

 

And the article left out the tale of the "DC-2-and-a-Half".

After being shot-up by Japanese fighters, the damaged wing of a DC-3 was replaced with one from a DC-2.It was then loaded up with refugees, and flown to safety.

 

 

ONE OF THE SAFEST PLANES EVER BUILT FOR OUR USE,

WITHOUT ALL THE NEW GADGETS

IS BEING GROUNDED.

IT SURE BROUGHT US WHEREVER AND WHENEVER WE WANTED

AND TOOK US BACK SAFELY.|

Thanks a million 'Old Bird', 'DC-3', 'DAKOTA'.

You'll be missed for carrying us to safety, when we needed you.

[Simon Lee]

This is old news, Classic Flight Dakotas haven't carried passengers since 2007, and this years Air Tattoo is 12th 13th July, looking at the Classic Flight website, they are working to find a solution in cooperation with the CAA. 

 

Sounds like a quiet news day at the Daily Mail......

[Smiffy2]

Is that the EU making a ruling or the CAA?

[melmerby]

This is old news, Classic Flight Dakotas haven't carried passengers since 2007, and this years Air Tattoo is 12th 13th July, looking at the Classic Flight website, they are working to find a solution in cooperation with the CAA. 

 

Sounds like a quiet news day at the Daily Mail......

Good old Daily Wail

No news day is "have a punt at the EU" day.

And people believe the cr*p it prints!

 

Keith

[Simon Lee]

Is that the EU making a ruling or the CAA?

Link

 

www.classicairforce.com/dakota-info

[wombatofludham]

This news is almost as old as the DC3.  The "EU" "Health and Safety" it talks about is a joint airworthiness directive affecting all aircraft of more than 19 seats requiring the fitting of floor level escape lights and escape devices which Air Atlantique, as it was then, decided was too expensive to retrofit to the DC3 and decided instead to concentrate it's vintage flying experiences in the smaller Dragon Rapide, Twin Pioneer and Devon aircraft which were exempt from the new regulations.  Passenger carrying DC3s in other parts of Europe have continued in service, so the decision was entirely down to Air Atlantique.  Given they have since moved from Coventry to Newquay, I suspect that economics were of a greater issue than the technical feasibility.

 

The idea that the Daily Mail is a newspaper is laughable when it decides to bring up a news item from 2007 in a crapwitted attempt to push UKIP's fortunes higher with vintage aircraft enthusiasts.  It wouldn't surprise me if they next try and resurrect the hilarious "EU" "H&S" directive on painting hot surfaces in the workplace yellow (or was it red?) that some steam enthusiasts genuinely thought would mean they would have to paint their steam locos in some vivid health and safety colour, or the "EU" attempt to ban the London double-deck bus (which turned out to be an inter-operability directive that coaches on international service could be no more than 4m high, but with derogations for buses wholly operated within a sovereign state, which given Berlin and Dublin also had 4.2m high double deck buses meant that London wasn't being singled out) both of which have been headline lies in the Daily Nazi.

 

Never forget the Daily Mail supported Hitler pre-war and thought Moseley was a "jolly nice chap" so frankly is something I wouldn't even use to wipe my behind with for fear of catching something nasty from it.

 

[fender]

the DC-3 has carried more passengers than the 737? or narrow-body Airbus? I think not.

[jjb1970]

Indeed, it is not very edifying to see stories of this type. This is especially pernicious as not only does it stoking anti-EU feeling but by using health and safety to misrepresent air worthiness regulations it is also having a completely unjustified go at one of the medias other easy targets for silly stories.

[woodyfox]

A minimum standard of safety on something that flies over populated areas is a sensible safeguard. Should the thing fail and fall I doubt those in the 'flight path' will capture the romance of seeing something from a bygone era.

 

Wobatofludham - great post - real insight to the vacuousness of that facist rag.

[Will J]

I'd advise readers to go to the duxford d-day airshow next week to understand the extent to which dc3 has been grounded!

[Catkins]

This news is almost as old as the DC3.  The "EU" "Health and Safety" it talks about is a joint airworthiness directive affecting all aircraft of more than 19 seats requiring the fitting of floor level escape lights and escape devices . . .

The obvious answer to this then is to take some seats out, until you have 18 seats.

 

How does this affect the Douglas DC-3 that flies out of Coningsby?

[Happy Hippo]

The bbmf version is a freighter which is also fitted for para dropping and air despatch. Plus it is a military airframe so any civil requirements do not apply

[wombatofludham]

I think Air Atlantique figured reducing the seating capacity to 19 would make their pleasure flight activities uneconomic unless prices went up.

 

By the way the Dutch Dakota Association have two DC3s flying a full range of trips, and I'm pretty sure the Netherlands are in the EU, so it's still possible to experience DC3 travel within the EU, Air Atlantique made a commercial decision to end DC3 flights rather than comply with the new directive.

 

https://www.dutchdakota.nl/en/plan-en-boek/

[Will J]

An interesting summary of the 'Coventry' Dakota fleet here:

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/air-atlantique-dc-3-dakotas.html

 

Still going strong, but not in such a high profile role. Of the three flying from Coventry in 2007, G-AMPY and ANAF as described here are still active in the UK. G-AMRA (the one with the black belly and green stripes) has gone off to carry on passenger carrying duties in Germany.. so we have to assume the EU, in fact, is still happy with the idea of DC3s carrying passengers!

[DDolfelin]

Still a good read about what was undeniably a good workhorse around the world, assuming the 'history' facts are correct.

[Ron Ron Ron]

Still a good read about what was undeniably a good workhorse around the world, assuming the 'history' facts are correct.

 

Unfortunately a lot of that article is inaccurate or even just pure fiction.

 

 

 

.

[jjb1970]

The thing that always worries me is that almost invariably when I have a vague understanding of the story I find the media version to be nonsense. At best it can be a case of misunderstanding the story, often it is misrepresentation, yet I (along with most others I'm guessing) rely on the media to inform me of what is happening in the world. And it is not just the Daily Mail, they have a tendency to run some very silly right wing eurosceptic and generally anti-modern world stories but in terms of political bias I don't really see that any of the other papers are really much better. If anything at least the bonkers ranting of the Mail is pretty obvious, the other papers can be a bit more subtle and hence effective in peddling biased stories. And it isn't just general media either, I sometimes see articles in specialist/enthusiast publications that are outrageous.

[Robert]

There are almost certainly ways around the problems - Lufthansa fly a Junkers JU 52 and carry passengers on her.

 

This is almost certainly more a question of economics than "H&S rules". 

 

I have no idea how many hours are left on the Air Atlantique airframes, but if they are nearly time expired, then it isn't worth fitting modern safety equipment/ avionics when you are going to have to retire them in a few years anyway.

[F-UnitMad]

Unfortunately a lot of that article is inaccurate or even just pure fiction.

 

 

 

.

I did wonder about it's wartime uses including 'bomber' & 'fighter'... really...???

[Ron Ron Ron]

I did wonder about it's wartime uses including 'bomber' & 'fighter'... really...???

 

Apart from rolling out bombs from the cargo door (Central American conflict in 1969 and earlier by the Israeli's), there were quite a few unusual uses of the C-47 in WW2 involving improvisation and in a few limited cases armament.

 

There's mention of some of that here.

 

The most commonly known offensive use of the C-47 was during the Vietnam war where the US converted C-47's into AC-47D gunships.

[Ron Ron Ron]

Some of the dubious stuff stated in that article....

 

 

"It has carried more passengers than any plane in history"

 

Although nobody will ever know the numbers of troops and other passengers carried by this aircraft during WW2, or in subsequent conflicts, it is very hard to imagine that it comes anywhere near the numbers of passengers carried by the most successful modern airliners.

We could be talking hundreds of millions compared with billions each in the case of aircraft like the B727, B737, B747 etc.

 

 

"...served in just about every military conflict from World War II onward".

 

I think that claim ran out of steam a few decades ago.

 

 

"...at one point, 90 percent of the world's air traffic was operated by DC-3s".

 

"World's air traffic"?

Hardly likely, although for a few years post WW2, they probably made up a very high proportion of the number of commercial airliners/freighters.

 

 

"More than 10,500 DC-3s have been built since the prototype was rolled out to astonished onlookers at Douglas's Santa Monica factory in 1935".

 

The way that is written implies they are still making them, or that they recently went out of production; when in fact they were made between 1936 and 1945/6.

Although a very short production run of "Super Dakotas' was carried out 1949 I believe.

 

 

"With its eagle beak, large square windows and sleek metal fuselage, it was luxurious beyond belief, in contrast to the wood-and-canvas bone shakers of the day",

 

There were already all-metal airliners in service and had been for a number of years, including various Flying Boats, although the DC-3 and its DC-2 predecessor were seen as a step forward in many respects.

 

 

"For the first time, passengers were able to stand- up and walk- around while the plane was airborne".

 

Total nonsense.

 

 

"It was without question the most successful aircraft ever built, and even in this jet-age",

 

That depends on what sort of success is being measured.

Undoubtedly an iconic aircraft and will forever remain one of the all-time greats, if not one of the greatest.

 

 

"...many a pilot of a modern jet has been astonished to find a Dakota alongside him on the climb away from the runway".

 

?????

If we are talking jet airliner operating under normal conditions (commercial flight under IFR), they'd have every right to be astonished as it shouldn't happen.

In other words a loss of separation, colloquially known as an Air-Miss.

What tosh !!!

 

 

"The local radar, incredibly, had been switched off because it was a Sunday. The national air safety rules were changed to ensure it never happened again...."

 

This is the reference to the 1962 Channel Airways IOW crash.

There was no local radar (only a few larger airports would have had it in 1962) other than at nearby RAF Thorney Island, who may have been requested to provide a radar service of some description, had they been open and subject to military priorities.

The plane was attempting to let down in low cloud for a landing at Portsmouth and the pilot took a risk in order to establish visual contact with the ground.

Portsmouth Airport was a grass airfield with only air-to-ground radio facilities.

The DC-3 crashed on the site of the disused WW2 RAF radar station at Ventnor (possible where the "radar" bit came from).

The cause of the crash was pilot error and the safety rules that changed involved radio communication facilities and established mandatory weather minima for commercial flights. Nothing whatsoever to do with radar.

 

 

.

[jjb1970]

There were a few attempts to re-engine the DC3/C47 with turbine engines and I believe the South African Air Force may still have a few on charge, or did until very recently. For a long time Air Atlantique had the UK MCA (and predecessor organisations) for marine oil spill response to spray dispersent chemicals from DC3's. A magnificent aircraft for sure but as with trains there comes a point where you have to make the distinction between wonderful machines which we still love and recognition that they are relics from a by-gone age that are woefully inadequate in most respects when compared to modern equipment.

[melmerby]

 

Some of the dubious stuff stated in that article....

 

 

"It has carried more passengers than any plane in history"

 

Although nobody will ever know the numbers of troops and other passengers carried by this aircraft during WW2, or in subsequent conflicts, it is very hard to imagine that it comes anywhere near the numbers of passengers carried by the most successful modern airliners.

We could be talking hundreds of millions compared with billions each in the case of aircraft like the B727, B737, B747 etc.

 

 

.

 

I would guess the B737 might take that honour as more than 8000 have been built since the first ones went into service 46 years ago

 

Keith

[Ron Ron Ron]

I would guess the B737 might take that honour as more than 8000 have been built since the first ones went into service 46 years ago

 

Keith

 

Just coming on 8,000 delivered out of total orders so far for over 11,150 with production of the latest versions continuing for a few years to come.

Boeing estimates they have carried over 16.8 billion passengers.

 

The B747 (5.6 billion), B727 (4 billion) and Airbus A320 family* (7 billion ?) have also flown vast numbers of passengers too. 

Each of these dwarfs the likely number of passengers ever carried on the DC-3 / C-47.

 

 

[* note: Deliveries of the A320 family (A318/319/320/321/Neo etc) has passed the 6,000 mark, with another 4,300+ firm orders.]

 

.

[Sylvian Tennant]

That's odd! I saw a DC-3 flying above Middlesbrough this afternoon!