Jump to content

Swedish neutrality DC-3


Lars Befring

Recommended Posts

During the WWII the Swedish airline ABA continued its international flights with planes painted in striking orange.Björn Bäcklund has built, rescribed, slightly modified, cut his own masks and used a lot of orange color on a Monogram DC-3:


DC-3_16-557x417.jpg


The orange color and Swedish markings didn't keep the plane from being shot down in 1943.


Björn presents the build here:




Lars Befring for IPMS-Stockholm


IPMS_logo.png


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nah...it's just something my machine is doing a lot lately...goes well then pages start half opening and locking. Only certain pages or sites.

Happened since the last Windows update.

Maybe later it will open, they usually do eventually.

Then I'll get a propper look at what is a very smart model.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Beautiful!

Just one thing - I don't want to detract from the effort that Bjorn has obviously put in, but shouldn't the model have Cyclone engines, rather than Twin Wasps? According to the Gradidge encyclopaedia, SE-BAF (c/n 2133) was a Fokker-built DC-3-268. The DC-3 was originally designed around the Cyclone, and my understanding is that all the Fokker-built aircraft had them. Although I accept that the aircraft could have had an engine change during its life (that wasn't a difficult job - the two types were interchangeable) I've found nothing in my references to suggest that it did.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Beautiful!

Just one thing - I don't want to detract from the effort that Bjorn has obviously put in, but shouldn't the model have Cyclone engines, rather than Twin Wasps? According to the Gradidge encyclopaedia, SE-BAF (c/n 2133) was a Fokker-built DC-3-268. The DC-3 was originally designed around the Cyclone, and my understanding is that all the Fokker-built aircraft had them. Although I accept that the aircraft could have had an engine change during its life (that wasn't a difficult job - the two types were interchangeable) I've found nothing in my references to suggest that it did.

That is right! the aircraft was a Fokker built plant that ABA bought from Swissair at the beginning of WWII. ABA got the engine-change approved on the 27th of March 1943.

the engine installed was a P&W R-1830-92.

this info is translated from a thread on the Swedish air history forum http://forum.flyghistoria.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2528&p=13437&hilit=gladan&sid=0c2f98cba2b72d5869dec79a90606529#p13437

/L

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

One interesting link to this is that the Swedes found themselves in a predicament when it came to obtaining engines in wartime. So the decided to reverse-engineer the P&W R1830 and put it into production. Not just for this DC-3... Post war a Swedish delegation turned up at P&W and admitted everything, whereupon P&W waived all licence charges.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That must be a very different Pratt & Whitney from today's current Pratt & Whitney who won't even allow decal makers to make decals for engines.

I suspect that in 1945, P&W were sitting on so much money it was becoming physically uncomfortable.

Lars -- who shot the DC-3 down, the Allies or the Axis?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For those who are interested, I am writing a book on the courier flights between Britain and Sweden during WWII, including British, Norwegian, Swedish and American aircraft. The manuscript and photos will hopefully be handed over to the publisher within a couple of months.

Nils

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...