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More work on the Air Mobility Command combat vet C-47


Teamski
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Work on the AMC Museum "Turf and Sports Special" continues. Now that we have the troop seats installed, we are now working on installing the gun ports in the troop windows. It was pretty harrowing drilling the 2.5" hole in 3/8" plexiglass without causing injury to person or plane. With the exception of one window, it was an outstanding success. Here are shots of the holes I drilled and the rubber gaskets we plan on using. They aren't 100% correct, but they are as close as we can get.

 

 

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Once we get all of the gaskets in, we are going to use the disks we cut out as the plugs. Another project we are working on is the glider tow gear which is missing from the aircraft. Phantomfixer on this board is going to fabricate a mounting ring that incorporates 4 lugs that attach to struts. This is going to be really fun.... not. Trying to do measurements in the tailcone of the aircraft is going to be a challenge to say the least. The cool thing is that we have an original bite cylinder on hand.

 

 

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Another volunteer already installed the snap fittings you see in the photo. They look awesome. The real fun starts when we build up the 4 struts that hold the cylinder in place. More to follow on that. I mentioned that the AMC Museum C-47 is a true combat vet and is painted as it was during WWII. Here is an original shot of it being worked on. We are trying to locate a source for the Rebecca antennas on the sides of the aircraft and the transmitter antenna on the lower nose. If anybody knows where we can get these, it would be greatly appreciated!

 

-Ski

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doinworkinvans

Such good work - I wish i be could privaleged enough to work on a project like this.

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Johnny Signor

There's a couple of C-47 Facebook pages , try posting about the work on there it may generate some leads on the parts etc ..................

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ha! Today we installed the glider tow rope release mechanism in the C-47. Phantomfixer on this board fabricated the spider bracket that attached the mechanism to the struts that hold it in place. I am pretty chuffed with how it turned out! This plane is quickly becoming fully equipped once again.

 

-Ski

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Great job guys. I must get the RAF to send me back out to Dover AFB on another C-17 course so I can visit the museum again.

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  • 1 month later...

We scratch built and installed a pair of APN-2/AN-148 Rebecca antennas on the C-47 this weekend. We couldn't find originals, so we had to make them ourselves. They turned out really well. The plane is definitely looking more and more like it did 70+ years ago.

 

-Ski

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  • 7 months later...

The restoration crew installed the last pair of bomb racks for the paracrates. We were fortunate to find them as they are rare as hen's teeth! The C-47 is reaching it's final configuration. phantomfixer from this forum is finishing up the radio compartment rack installation and then we will be getting the "coat closet" behind the cockpit completed as well. So much work done and yet, more to be done.

 

Note that we had to fabricate the two antennas you see in the photo from stratch; The HF trailing antenna and the VHF radio mast. Luckily, we were able to salvage the aerial antennas from the old post-war configuration.

 

-Ski

 

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Very nice work there. I never saw those bomb racks before!

Hoping to come down and visit this summer, it's not too far from me and I've been meaning to for a while now. It's a nice collection of aircraft there, and that was many years ago the last time I was there.

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phantomfixer

here is a period pic from a training manual grabbed online...the parapack racks had a standard USAAF bomb rack installed in the pararack....I forget which model it is...is about 14 inches long..and the paracrate or parapack is released from a control panel near the cargo door, either electrically or with a manual release cable....the racks really make the underside POP....

 

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