Test flying a 70-year-old airplane

A pilot (with a great sense of humour) gets his first chance to fly a DC3, more than 70 years after the famous aircraft first took to the skies. Today, decades later, scores are still in operation.

My favorite line:

I was much taken by the crew escape hatch on the left-hand fuselage side, just behind the cockpit bulkhead, because if, during an evacuation, the still-turning left propeller (the tips just missing the hatch by inches) didn’t kill you, the 25ft (7.6m) drop certainly would.

Well worth a read if you have an interest in old airplanes, or airplanes in general.

(Via DefenseTech.)

Permanent link to this article: https://edwardwillett.com/2006/12/test-flying-a-70-year-old-airplane/

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