'Flagship Detroit' DC-3 Gets American Airlines Refurbishment

May 31--Carrying 21 passengers, three crew members and cruising at about 125 mph, the Douglas DC-3 was once the crown jewel of commercial aviation.

It was in the mid-1930s that American Airlines and its DC-3 began showing the world that flying commercial passengers could be a viable industry.

Of course, there was little room for bags aboard the plane, and a cross-country flight from New York to Los Angeles would take more than an entire day.

This weekend the original American Airlines "Flagship Detroit" DC-3 will be gracing the skies above Oklahoma, and it will be followed next week by a replica of the "Memphis Belle," the iconic World War II B-17 bomber.

Jim Gentry, an American Airlines mechanic in Tulsa, is among those who volunteered his nights and weekends during the last month to perform work on the "Flagship Detroit" at Tulsa International Airport.

"This is the oldest flying DC-3 in the world," he said Thursday at an American Airlines maintenance hangar housing the gleaming plane. "It's really something to work on."

The "Flagship Detroit," one of American's earliest DC-3s, was built in 1937.

The plane, which has been under maintenance for nearly a month in Tulsa, will be taken on a charity flight Saturday connected to an earlier auction. The foundation that cares for and presents the plane will then be offering flights to the public.

The Flagship Detroit Foundation can't technically sell rides on the plane, but it can sell annual memberships for $150. In turn, members can take a flight over Tulsa.

The "Flagship Detroit" has been flying continuously since 1937, when American Airlines took delivery of the once next-generation aircraft.

The DC-3 made American Airlines a player in the aviation industry when commercial flying wasn't economically feasible.

"They say this is the plane that made flying profitable," Gentry said.

The "Flagship Detroit" has twin propeller gasoline engines, and it features the original American Airlines paint job with an orange lightning bolt and stripe design.

"There are not a lot of people left who know how to work on these," said Ben Jarvis, another American mechanic. "It's completely different from the new planes we work on."

Saturday's flight marks the first of eight days of historical aircraft being shown off in Tulsa. On Monday, the "Memphis Belle" replica will land at Tulsa International and spend a week at the Tulsa Air & Space Museum.

The original "Memphis Belle" was one of the first B-17 Flying Fortress bombers used in World War II; it flew 25 missions in Europe.

The plane's final mission in 1943 was made into a 1990 feature film starring Matthew Modine. The movie, named after the plane, is largely fictional.

The original aircraft is in the U.S. Air Force Museum in Ohio, but the B-17 now taking the "Memphis Belle" name is an actual production aircraft built in 1945. It missed combat action because the war ended that year.

"It's not very often that we get historic planes out here like this," said Kim Jones, curator at the Tulsa Air & Space Museum.

The plane will be on display at the Tulsa museum June 8 and 9 from 2:30 to 5 p.m. each day. The Liberty Foundation, which curates the plane, will be offering rides for $450 a person.

Flagship Detroit

Make: Douglas DC-3

Manufactured: 1937

Type: Passenger aircraft

In Tulsa: Friday and Saturday

Where: Sparks Aviation 3411 N. 74th East Ave.

Time: 9 a.m. Saturday

For flights: Tom Taff: 214-662-6048

Memphis Belle (replica)

Make: B-17 Flying Fortress

Manufactured: 1945

Type: World War II bomber