AirVenture Hosts 75th Birthday of the Venerable DC-3
A highlight of AirVenture 2010 was the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the venerable Douglas DC-3, which changed aviation from a novelty to a major

A highlight of AirVenture 2010 was the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the venerable Douglas DC-3, which changed aviation from a novelty to a major means of transportation all over the world. Approximately 500 DC-3s remain in the world today, and 100 of them are in the U.S. Thirty-six of those were at AirVenture, and 21 of them flew in on a mass flight from Rock Falls, Ill.

Although the DC-3 is generally remembered as the world’s first real airliner, military versions, mostly C-47s, exceeded civilian production by more than 10 times. There were 607 civilian DC-3s built and 10,048 military versions, many of which were reconfigured for civilian service as airliners or freighters after World War II. Several of the military versions that saw service in the D-Day invasion of Normandy were among those at Oshkosh for their last reunion.