PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - C-117
Thread: C-117
View Single Post
Old 12th Jan 2012, 14:20
  #20 (permalink)  
ORAC
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 17,496
Received 1,641 Likes on 752 Posts
Didn't the C-74 feature as a Chinese government plane in the original version of The Italian Job ?
Douglas C-74 Globemaster. Built in 1945 it was one of only 16, all remaining orders being cancelled on VJ day. It originally carried USAF serial number 42-65409, changed to N3181G in 1956.

It was retired from service in 1956 and, after reconditioning at Oakland, registered by Aeronaves de Panama as HP-379 (probably a CIA-backed airlne).

By 1963 it, and two other civil Globemaster-Is ,were flying cargo in Europe for Air Systems. The company went out of business after one of the Globemaster Is crashed at Marseilles in October 1963 and HP-379 was abandoned in Milan. By 1969 it had been flown to the Turin Airport and the film company painted it in the colors of the fictitious Communist Chinese Civil Aviation Airlines Corporation for The Italian Job.

It caught fire while on public display Jun 11, 1970 and again on Sep 24, 1970, this time killing two salvage workers, at which time it was scrapped.
ORAC is offline