Seattle Museum of Flight

[Flight Detent]

Went to see the Seattle museum a couple of weeks ago.
I thought it is a fantastic museum, spent all day there, very well presented.

My first look at: FW190, SR71, P-38 and many others in very, very good condition.

One Q I have, I saw the 'overhead' C-47 in the main auditorium, but it had the main door on the starboard side, that's a first for me, I've only ever seen them on the port side, and I used to be licenced (airframe group) on the type!

Absolutely a great place to visit.
It has the first ever B747 and B737 to fly, and the B707 'Air Force One' which is still open for inspection!

My one and only disappointment was the overly conservative clear plastic barriers inside the Concorde, I couldn't get close enough to see properly into the flight deck.
That Flight Engineer's station is awesome!

Didn't get the time to drive down to Oregon to see their museum, so close but yet......!

If you get a chance, go see!

Cheers, FD

[WebPilot]

La-la-la-la, I'm not listening. I'm jealous - in August I had to go to Seattle for a week on business and had carefully planned my schedule to give me an few free hours to visit the Museum of Flight; a colleague in Seattle whose wife knows some people at the museum had organised me a complimentary admission.....

But the meetings that I was there for ovveran so badly that I ended up with no spare time at all, in fact it all finished a scant 40 minutes before the car came to take me back to Seatac for the flight back to the UK.

Arse, Arse, Arse, Arse.

Not a happy bunny, was I.

Anyway. Glad you enjoyed your visit. I've probably got to go back to Seattle for more meetings sometime next year so fingers crossed I can get there eventually.

[barit1]

It's not really a C-47, then. Some prewar DC-3's were built with a RH pax door - in fact the initial order (American Airlines) were thus.

C-47's by rights all had the double cargo door on the port side.

And there a dozen more variants - Wright vs P&W, big carb air scoops & filters on C-47B's, C-53 paratrooper types, yada yada.

[Opssys]

According to a passage in Hugh MacDonald's book:
Aeroflot - Soviet Air Transport since1923.

The Russians modified some American built C-47's to a single starboard door and the Li-2's were built that way. Although not stated, it appears (at least to this reader of the book) that some of the DC 3's bought pre-war may have also had the Starboard door.

Although having said that the Aeroflot DC 3 Photograph in the book appears to be 'normal'.

Right off to do my An-2 Operations revision (Float Versions only).
DIH

[Fris B. Fairing]

At least one DC-3 had a right hand door and a left hand door - albeit not simultaneously! VH-ANR (http://www.vh-anr.adastron.com) at the Queensland Air Museum was built for KLM who specified a right hand door. Post-war, the aeroplane was acquired by Australian National Airways whose DC-3 fleet had left hand doors. So for standardisation they moved the door to the left side.

[sedburgh]

One Q I have, I saw the 'overhead' C-47 in the main auditorium, but it had the main door on the starboard side, that's a first for me, I've only ever seen them on the port side, and I used to be licenced (airframe group) on the type!

That's because it's a DC-3 not a C-47, see the information on their web site at:
http://www.museumofflight.org/Collection/Aircraft.asp?RecordKey=4A1CA0E5-D7B7-4460-B3A6-17A6D036A3E7

Philip Morten

[Flight Detent]

Thanks for that!

Regardless of the sign, I don't remember to many DC-3's with the big double cargo doors, none in fact.

All the DC-3's I've seen, or thought I saw, had the smaller, personal, oval shaped door.

Cheers, FD