BT-67: not military, but interesting

[MarkOttawa]

Here's the plane:
http://www.baslerturbo.com/specifications.html

Compared to the standard DC-3, the BT-67 has:

    * 35% more interior volume
    * 43% more useful load
    * 24% more speed
    * 76% more productivity
    * Up to 100% more fuel capacity
    * Lower stall speed
    * Lower approach speed
    * Fuel mileage equal at equal speeds
    * All metal control surfaces
    * Center and outer wings reinforced to reduce loads on lower wing attach angles and to support the increased maximum gross weight.

Here's an operator:
http://www.borekair.com/index.php?cat=about

Kenn Borek Air Ltd. maintains permanent fixed wing base facilities in the Northwest Territories at Inuvik, in Nunavut at Cambridge Bay, Resolute Bay, Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit, in British Columbia at Sandspit, and in Alberta at Edmonton and Calgary. The company holds domestic and international licenses for all these locations to provide a variety of charter and scheduled services, as well as a complete maintenance and overhaul facility in Calgary.

Recent news:
http://www.canadiancontent.net/commtr/canadian-basler-aircraft-crashes-antarctica_857.html

A Basler BT-67, chartered from Canadian air carrier Kenn Borek Air for the National Science Foundation (NSF), a United States government agency, has crashed whilst attempting take-off during a support assignment in Antarctica. None of the ten people on board were injured, but the modified Douglas DC-3 was substantially damaged in the accident.

From one who was there:
http://mitchell-antarctica.blogspot.com/2007/12/incidenti-guess.html

...Some have called it an incident, others have been calling it a hard landing (although I don't know how you can have a hard landing when you havn't actually taken off). I call it a plane crash. Basically what happened is, as the plane went to take off and we reached flying speed, one side of the plane went up and the other didn't. The left wing got caught in the ice and sent the plane tumbling. My seat came unbolted from the floor with me still strapped into the seatbelt. When we finally came to a halt, we were all in big pile in the corner of the plane with all of the equipment. We got shaken up pretty bad, but there were no major injuries other than some minor cuts and bruises. We are all doing well and thankful the crash wasn't any worse. The plane, however, did not fair so well. The wings, props, and tail all got bent up pretty bad. The landing gear, skis, and hydraulic system (the red stain in the pictures below is hydraulic fluid) all were ripped from the plane and strewn about the ice. She won't be flying any time soon...

From AviationSafetyNetwork:
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20071220-1

The DC-3 Turbo plane [first flight 1942] was charted by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) providing support to a group of researchers at a remote location in Antarctica. The airplane collided with drifted snow and ice while taking off from a field site near Mt. Patterson in West Antarctica. The six passengers aboard the plane were part of the NSF-funded portion of the international Polar Earth Observatory Network (POLENET) project, which is deploying GPS units and seismic sensors across Antarctica.

Via Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs:
http://www.cfc.forces.gc.ca/spotnews_e.html

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I got to fly in a 1938 Douglas Skyliner down in South America, nice aircraft but slow and loud!