Raci570 Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Can anyone tell me the type of airplane used in the movie The Thing From Another World (the original movie with James Arness from 1951)? I'm thinking of the scenes where the team was flying out to see the alien crash site. It's a military plane with just beautiful lines and I'd sure appreciate it if any fan or fans could identify it for me. Thanks everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Douglas DC-3, the best airplane ever made. Some of them built in the 1940s and 50s are still flying as airliners and cargo planes in small countries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raci570 Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 Yes, someone told me it might be a DC-3 -- a beautiful plane; could it also have been a DC-3 converted to a C-47 Skytrain (wasn't the latter just a conversion of a passenger plane -- the DC-3 -- to a cargo plane --the C47 Skytrain)? Or was the C-47 a separate plane from the start? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Try searching Google for: C-47 Skytrain. I think that was a slightly modified military version used for cargo and military passengers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raci570 Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 Already did, Fred. I think you're right about the plane. Wouldn't it be great to fly in one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 I flew in a DC-3 in the early 1960s. I think it was a Delta Airline plane. It went from one small town in the South to another, about 90 miles away. A short hop. Since, while on the ground, the airplane slants downward toward the tail, the inside central isle slopes upward toward the front. We had to walk up-hill in the central isle to get to the seats up front, and it was quite a steep climb. The cabin was not pressurized, and it was fairly noisy. We had two stewardesses who gave us chewing gum before take-off and before landing, which they said would help our ears to adjust to the changing air pressure. I suppose we were flying at about 10,000 feet or so. Our ears "popped" on the way up and on the way down. I felt like I was in an old 1930s movie! I felt like I might land with a big Chinese revolution going on at the airport. But the flight really felt good. The airplane wings have a lot of surface area, so we flew fairly slowly, but we felt like we were floating on the clouds. These planes could fly with just one engine working, and they could glide in for a landing with no engines working. They could take off and land on short runways. There was an earlier model called a DC-1, first made around 1933. I think the airplane in the 1937 "Lost Horizon" movie is an earlier model DC-2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raci570 Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 Thanks for that story. I envy your experience. Flying is such a hassle now. The fun and excitement that used to be there are gone. The only ones that make it look fun now are the commercials put on by Korean Air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ValentineXavier Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 I flew in DC3s several times in the US, in the 50s. They were US airlines. The first time I went bicycle touring in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, in 1981, I flew in one a couple of times. Those were small Mexican airlines. Fred's right, they were work-horses for decades, solid and reliable. I'm not sure how many are still flying, but I'd bet more than just a few. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 I've never flown a local plane around Yucatan. I've flown into Ycatan a few times on jets. Then I rented cars. I drove all the way to Campeche (the town) one time. There are places there where nothing has changed in the past 400 years, and other places where nothing has changed during the past 1,000 years. I read somewhere that as the DC-3 engines gradually wore out, some company designed a new one, or began re-making the old ones, since the rest of the planes parts were ok. I've often seen DC-3s parked at small airports, either used for spare parts or they were for sale. I see in photos on Google, some DC-3 airlines have new plastic and pointed nose cones, or longer nose cones. Maybe that's for radar. But the basic body and everything else are usually original. I think they stopped making them in the early 1950s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MovieMadness Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 It might also be the naval version R4D, I can't come up with a photo though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 I just saw "Without Orders" (1936) On TCM, and it uses a Boing 247 airliner from 1933. This is a little smaller than a DC-3, and it doesn't look as good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raci570 Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 Now I know where I've heard that name -- Fred C. Dobbs -- Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Humphrey Bogart! So you're a fan, huh? Me too. I just recently brought a friend over and showed him The Maltese Falcon. Needless to say, he was blown away. Casablanca's great too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craviola990 Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Dad has an old Cesnna T-50 Bobcat, or "Bamboo Bomber"; type used in first season of Sky King. Bought it back in 1973, and am helping him with restoration right now. For anyone who love airliners from the 1940-70s, you may enjoy my You Tube channel: http://www.youtube.com/mcdonnell220 Best, Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ValentineXavier Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 > {quote:title=Raci570 wrote:}{quote}Now I know where I've heard that name -- Fred C. Dobbs -- Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Humphrey Bogart! So you're a fan, huh? Me too. I just recently brought a friend over and showed him The Maltese Falcon. Needless to say, he was blown away. Casablanca's great too. If Fred gives you any trouble, just point a gila monster at him... Fred, it's Boeing, not "Boing." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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