In the 1940s, the United States needed an aircraft capable of transporting troops, cargo, and the wounded. The solution is the R4D Skytrain based on the Douglas Aircraft Company DC-3 civil airliner. The aircraft was designated R4D by the U.S. Navy, C-47 by the U.S. Army and Air Force, and DC-3 by its manufacturer, Douglas Aircraft Company. The aircraft is known more colloquially as the “Gooney Bird”. With a crew of three, the aircraft can carry a payload of 6,000 pounds. It uses two Pratt & Whitney R-1830-90Cs, each producing 1,200 horsepower. The aircraft is 63.9 feet long, 17 feet tall, and has a wingspan of 95.6 feet. Its empty weight is 18,135 pounds and its loaded weight is 26,000 pounds. The maximum speed of the aircraft is 224 mph at 10,000 feetwith a cruising speed of 160 mph. Its range is 1,600 miles and its service ceiling is 26,400 feet. During World War II, the U.S. military produced more than 10,000 R4D/C-47s, and since its first flight in December 1941, the aircraft has flown almost every mission. First used in Operation Husky and later in Operation Avalanche, the R4D/C-47 became the hero of Operation Overlord (also known as D-Day), when more than 1,000 R4D/C-47s ferried 23,000 paratroopers along the Normandy coast. Later participating in Operation Dragoon and Operation University in World War II, the aircraft was also used in the Berlin Airlift, the Korean War, and even the Southeast Asian War after World War II. In January 1947, the U.S. Navy used jet-assisted takeoff (JATO) and skids on six R4D aircraft to take off from the USS Philippine Sea as part of Operation High Jump aircraft carrier. The U.S. Navy installed a JATO bottle (solid rocket motor) on the aircraft fuselage to provide additional thrust for the aircraft carrier’s short-term takeoff. This was the first time R4D took off from an aircraft carrier, and over the next few days the aircraft carrier continued flying, photographing Antarctica’s coastline, exterior and interior. The ultimate mission is to take off from an aircraft carrier and land in Antarctica to explore.
In the mid-1950s, the U.S. Navy’s R4D light rail, named Que Sera Sera, made history when it landed at a U.S. Navy base. Antarctica October 31, 1956, as part of Operation Deep Freeze. It was the first American landing at the Pole and the first humans since Captain Robert F. Scott of the Royal Navy in 1912. Another lesser-known role of the R4D SkyTrain aircraft was its experience with NACA (now NASA). R4D served with NASA for more than thirty years from 1952 to 1984. The first R4D Skytrain arrived at the NACA High Speed Flight Research Station (later known as the Dryden Flight Research Center) from 1952 to 1956, and was part of at least one cross-country flight to Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The second R4D was in service from 1956 to 1979, flying several times to the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, and other NASA locations, before being retired and sold to Mississippi for use by the state police. The third R4D aircraft suffered from poor reliability, leading to maintenance issues. After accidentally landing in the desert during a military exercise, it was sent to the Lewis Research Center (now the Glenn Research Center) in Cleveland, Ohio. For 32 years, three R4D Skytrain aircraft have transported personnel and equipment between NACA/NASA centers and test sites across the country. Another goal of the aircraft is to land “dry” lake bed Check whether their surfaces are hard enough for an X-15 emergency landing. R4D was also used in the M2-F1’s first “air tow”, a lifting body made of mahogany plywood. The R4D towed the M2-F1 approximately 100 times before the M2-F1 was retired for use in more advanced lifting mechanisms dropped from NASA B-52 “motherships”. The R4D Skytrain is also used as a research aircraft. It helped conduct early research into visualizing wingtip vortices and inspected NASA’s uplink control system.
In 1962, the U.S. Department of Defense changed the way military aircraft were named. From that time on, all R4D aircraft were designated C-47s, and the R4D at NASA’s Flight Research Center (renamed Dryden Flight Research Center in 1976) was also designated C-47. Overall, the C-47 (or R4D Skytrain) was a fixture of the U.S. military during its most critical years. The aircraft is also part of NASA’s research that is defining the future of aviation, including transonic and supersonic aerodynamics, high-speed wing and airfoil design, boundary layer theory and drag reduction, jet and rocket propulsion research, sonic booms and wave cancellation, and more. In the flight test file series, the C-47 or R4D Skytrain is an aircraft that stands out, being able to serve almost everyone whenever needed. Read more flight test documentation articles here.
