Throwback to the 1930s

This weekend we’re heading to San Francisco in style–1930s style. We will be on the Historic Flight Foundation’s Douglas DC-3 from Everett Paine Field to SFO for a reunion of the China National Aviation Corp., CNAC, including a 100-year old veteran of the airline.

We’ll be on HFF’s DC-3, the only surviving CNAC plane, which is today painted in the colors of Pan American World Airways from the era. PAA owned a piece of CNAC before World War II.

This Douglas DC-3, owned by the Historic Flight Foundation, was operated at one time by China's CNAC and later as an executive aircraft. It still has the executive interior and panoramic windows of the executive configuration. Photo by Gail Twelves.

This Douglas DC-3, owned by the Historic Flight Foundation, was operated at one time by China’s CNAC and later as an executive aircraft. It still has the executive interior and panoramic windows of the executive configuration. Photo by Gail Twelves.

The plane eventually became an executive transport and the executive interior is still in it.

The flight will be about four hours each way. This will be the third time we’ve taken a ride on the aircraft, and this will be the longest. Previous rides were an hour long.

Look for our report from the trip on CNN.com, International, Travel next week as well as some additional information here.

8 Comments on “Throwback to the 1930s

  1. Never new there was a DC-3 with panoramic windows 🙂
    Enjoy the trip – looking forward to the report!

  2. We flew these around Alaska when I was a kid (FAA). Damned cold in the winter but always reliable even down to -40 on the ground (Northway and Fairbanks, ergh). Winter gear to fly inside a plane, pretty funny.

    We had a jumper flight from Chicago to Milwaukee in DC-3 airliner (no idea whose). You could see oil spurting up out of the engine and rivets popping out (though it was warm inside). when this was pointed out to the Stewardess by 3 kids who knew it was not right, her response was, that’s normal. No mam it is not, you need to tell the pilot he has problems over on that side.

    there is a big window one doing tours in AK. Good view but it does change the classic lines. Some and some.

  3. First panoramic windows on the DC3 that I can recall were in about 1962 in New Zealand.
    Airline was SPANZ (South Pacific Airlines of New Zealand.)
    Have no idea where they ended up. SPANZ did not last long due to NAC (now Air New Zealand) competition

  4. On an obliquely related note, there are some nice technicolor shots of a CAT C-46 on short final at the 50 minute mark of the classic William Holden – Jennifer Jones film ‘Love is a Many-Splenored Thing’. Nice film, worth the watch.

    ~ The Infidel Alliance

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