02/28/2011. Remarks by Jack McKillop: "This Douglas Model DC-3A-456 was ordered by the USAAF as C-47A-65-DL, s/n 42-100572 and was delivered on November 3, 1943. The aircraft was flown to England and issued to the 83rd Troop Carrier Squadron, 437th Troop Carrier Group, 53rd Troop Carrier Wing, IX Troop Carrier Command, Ninth Air Force.

In England, the group was based at Ramsbury, Wiltshire until the unit returned to the US in August 1945. During that time, they dropped paratroopers near Cherbourg during the Normandy invasion in June 1944, the invasion of Southern France in August 1944, Operation 'Market Garden' in September 1944, and the airborne assault across the Rhine River in March 1945. The 83rd Troop Carrier Squadron was assigned the squadron code 'T2' painted on the fuselage. At the end of August 1944, the IX Troop Carrier Command had been reassigned from the Ninth Air Force to the First Allied Airborne Army.

By July 1945, this aircraft was back in the US. It was declared surplus and transferred to the Reconstruction Finance Corp. at Walnut Ridge Airport, Walnut Ridge, Arkansas on November 4, 1945. On February 1, 1946, it was bought by Canadair Ltd. of Montreal, Quebec, Canada registered CF-DJT until sold to Maritime Central Airways of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada on January 17, 1950. It was sold to A.V. Roe (Canada) on August 19, 1953 and re-registered to Avro Aircraft Ltd. on February 3, 1955.

The next sale was to The Robert Simpson Co. of Toronto, Ontario, a department store chain, on June 30, 1959. Simpson had partnered with the US department store Sears, Roebuck and Co. of Chicago, Illinois, USA and this DC-3 was sold to Sears August 10, 1968 and registered N34110. Sears sold the aircraft in 1969 and it passed through two other owners; the second one re-registered it N181SB on February 3, 1973.

In 1974, it was sold to the Colombian airline TANA (Transportes Aereos Nacional) of Bogota, registered HK-1512-X and used for charter work until 1980 when it was re-registered HK-1512-E and used for agricultural work. It's fate is unknown."

View details of the wheel fairings on another plane.