Aircraft
That’s All Brother’ Destined for Posterity
CAF rescued historic C-47.

The Douglas C-47 that led the D-Day invasion came within a chance glance of being cut up and re-engined with turboprops. Sitting in the boneyard of Basler Turbo Conversions, right across the runway from EAA Headquarters on Wittman Field in Oshkosh, Wis., the historic “Gooney Bird” was set to get the modernization treatment when someone cross-referenced the data plate and realized how close the epic transport had come to going down the wrong historical road. Now, thanks in part to a lightning-fast Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) is restoring the aircraft to flying condition in its June 6, 1944 configuration.