View Full Version : Hiper DC3
I've just found these you-tube videos featuring a Hyper DC-3 with the R-2000 engines ( DC4) you can clearly see the slightly longer prop-shaft and different shape air intake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-NAFZtBDM0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM9P10ECqoA
You hear very little about the Hiper DC3 not to be confused with the Super DC3 with a different wing, tail and wheel spats.
Any Pruners out there that may have flown the Hiper or can provide details? Happpy to hear from you.
I know that Avianca operated Hipers in Colombia, which I believe were fitted with DC4 engines, but otherwise do not know in what other features it differed from the standard version. These planes were faster and presumably, because of the extra power, better suited to Colombia's rugged terrain and weather than the stock DC3.
Avianca lost many DC3s during the 50s and 60s quite a few with hired American pilots falling foul to notorious weather and high ground. Ernest Gann, in his book Fate is the Hunter, gives a poignant long list of airmen that met with such fate at a time when aviation was still young.
TowerDog
21st Dec 2009, 13:43
Never heard of the Hiper DC3s..
Was that a conversion, or factory option or what...?
Still see many DC-3 parked in South America at various airports and most of them way beyond repair.
Saw a couple in Honduras the other day.
Will look in Colombia, but uh, what does a Hiper DcC-3 look like?
Outwardly very similar to dc3 except the 'Hiper' label at the front ( in old Avianca livery, of course ).
Avianca was probably the only Hiper operator that I know of in Colombia, the bulk of the DC3/ C47 you mention are stock types and came later.
No idea if the Hiper was a factory item; most likely a modification with Douglas' approval. (Read somewhere that a Hiper was used by a Middle Eastern outfit at some point - likely only very few of them existed)
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/5518/aviancadc3pcgn7iz8.jpg
Willit Run
22nd Dec 2009, 15:28
Maybe the "Hiper" was a language barrier thing.
The "super" did have a different wing, longer it was, with squared off wing tips. Flush rivets on the wing surface. It had gear doors, retractable tail wheel, taller different tail, probably for bigger rudder for the bigger engines instaled, Curtis Wright, 1820-76 i believe. larger payload, longer range.
Or maybe the Hiper thing was a design that never made it into production.
Yobbo
22nd Dec 2009, 15:55
If my memory serves me correctly Hollanger Ungava Transport had them . These aircraft were used in Quebec and Labrador . They were equipped with a crosswind landing gear . The engines were P&W R2000 .
MarkerInbound
22nd Dec 2009, 16:34
Actually, the Super Three had a shorter wing span, 90 feet v. 96. Ours had 1820-80 engines, 1475 hp. The rudder was a joke. Yes, it was taller but had no throw. The USMC had a hard 10 knot crosswind limitation, all that extra surface caught the wind and you had nothing to straighten the plane out with.
I've heard of putting R2000s on a Three but never flown one.
They were equipped with a crosswind landing gear . The engines were P&W R2000 .
Correct.
Produced by special customer order at Santa Monica, and in Canada, some were used for DEW line construction supply.
OK so the Hiper did have the R2000 DC4/C54 engines which is what I had heard.
Now I never flew in one, knowingly, but heard many takeoff and land and they ment business. One thing I do remember is that the prop-shaft was a bit longer in the R2000 as fitted to the three's than in the standard engine so the propellor stuck out a bit more away from the cowling.
One thing I do remember is that the prop-shaft was a bit longer in the R2000 as fitted to the three's than in the standard engine so the propellor stuck out a bit more away from the cowling.
Not necessarily the propellor shaft.
The nose case on the R2000 was 'longer', hence the propellor was slightly extended.
The reason the nose reduction gear case on the R-2000 was 'longer' than on the R1830/1820 was because...it is a double row engine.
Yobbo
23rd Dec 2009, 09:35
The Hollanger Ungave aircraft were in house mods , gear and engines added well after they were manufactured. Not sure if the max t/o weight was increased. It was always strange to see them coming down the runway in a x wind , gear tracking straight and the aircraft cocked into wind .
"The nose case on the R2000 was 'longer'"
411A
Yes you can see the longer nose hubs in the above rendition something I had not noticed, also note the Hiper DC3 in red above AVIANCA. But the prop-shaft was noticeably longer too : why are those DC3 engines different? I used to ask myself on seeing the longer shaft, something I did not particularly like, quite distinct to the shafts on the corporate DC3s I was used to.
Wonder what other features the Hiper had other than engines and gear?
"What is DEW line construction supply"?
Yobbo
23rd Dec 2009, 10:07
The Dew Line was built in the mid 1950ies . It was a line or radar sites built from Alaska all the way across the Canadian arctic ending on the east coast of Baffin Island . the sites were approx 200 miles apart . They were built as a early warning system against Russian bombers at the height of the cold war . Distant Early Warning System, hence Dew Line .
This was the pic I wanted to show but not sure if its an authentic Hiper, also not sure of the date of this take. A DH Beaver appears in background but not in the true period Aero Taxi livery - owned by Avianca I believe - also a 727 so probably mid 60s before the AV red livery came into use. http://www.aviacol.net/images/zoom/QIQBJQ/AVIANCA_DC3-2.jpg
MarkerInbound
23rd Dec 2009, 17:55
"The reason the nose reduction gear case on the R-2000 was 'longer' than on the R1830/1820 was because...it is a double row engine."
The 1830 is also a double row. I don't know why the number of cylinder rows has any affect on the depth on the nose case. And the R2000 doesn't have a BMEP gauge so no torquemeter pistons.
Chuck Ellsworth
24th Dec 2009, 00:11
The biggest disappointment I had with flying the Super Three / C117 was the very ineffective rudder on the thing, if you thought you could handle the same cross wind in a C117 as you can in a DC3 you would soon run one off the runway.
Hello again!
Re my remarkes about propellor shaft length see below ... " Modified to Hi-Per configuration for service with Avianca as HK-316 " Compared to the standard dc3 the Hiper prop /cowl separation certainly looks distinctly bigger.
http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/8/6/9/1028968.jpg
Boeingav8tor
7th Jun 2012, 23:23
I flew this Hiper 3 back in 1977 when it was operated by Career Aviation in Hayward, CA. I was informed it had crashed in the Caribbean. I have flown many DC-3’s in various configurations, the R-2000 modification made this a pleasure to fly, 1,100 HP cruise produced a TAS of 174 kts. And you noticed a big improvement in performance at a MTOW of 26,900# Getting rid of the expander tube brakes and replacing them with disc was also a big improvement. Other than it being a bit nose heavy, (the R-2,000’s are heavier and protrude forward a bit) the flight characteristics were no different than a standard version of the DC-3/C-47. 88829 was a former Avianca aircraft, and in exceptional condition having been operated on a Part 121 certificate. (135.2)
Chalo
13th Aug 2013, 17:09
The conversion from a standard DC-3 using P&W R-1830s to Hiper DC-3 sporting P&W R-2000s was engineered and performed by an outfit in Alabama called HAYES Aviation in the 1950s. The first Hiper DC-3s coming out from Hayes were owned by PANAGRA Airways N49550, N28335 and N54311 and operated mainly out of the Quito, Ecuador Int. airport at 9,200 ft AMSL and there was a marked improvement in engine-out operation. Avianca also ordered some of these conversions in the 1950s and little known the USAF also had several Hiper C-47 Puffin Dragons and EC-47s operating in Viet Nam. The most tell-tale characteristic was an extension of the crankshaft some 10" long.
Chalo
15th Aug 2013, 01:53
The conversion from a standard DC-3 using P&W R-1830 engines to P&W R-2000s of 1450 HP was engineered and the actual work was done by HAYES Aircraft out of Birmigham, Alabama The first units were ordered by PANAGRA Airways (part owned by PanAm) N49550, N28335 and N54311 which operated out of the Quito, Ecuador Int. airport at 9,200 ft. AMSL altitude and the more powerful engines provided a much better engine-out performance. USAF also operated a number of Hiper C-47s in Latin America (i.e. S/N 54-8906) plus scores of Hiper Puffin Dragons AC-47s and EC-47s in Viet Nam in the 60s.
pigboat
15th Aug 2013, 03:00
Millardair in Toronto had a fleet of DC-3's equipped with the MLG doors and cowling modifications, they called it a speed kit. As far as I know that mod was done by a company in St. Louis MO called Remmert-Werner. I believe the mod also incorporated Pratt R1830-94 engines, giving 1350 instead of 1200 HP.
Hollinger Ungava did indeed have the crosswind gear on their DC-3's, but no Pratt R2000's, just the garden variety R1830's. I know that for a fact since I worked for 30 years at the company that succeeded HUT. There was one R2000 DC-3 in the next hangar over from ours, operated by the Canadian mining arm of the United States Steel Corp. In addition to the R2000's it had a rudder spring tab to help with rudder forces in an engine out situation, and the increased gross weight from 26,200 lbs to 26,900 lbs, an APU, weather radar and a one-piece heated windshield. I flew it a couple of times, it handled nicely and was about 20 kt faster than the vanilla version - 165 vs 145 kt TAS.
http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Transports/898.jpg
Edited to add pic of CF-QCM.