C-47A-90-DL 43-15731 N24320

-"This aircraft rolled of Douglas Aircraft’s production line in Long Beach, California during the spring of 1944, being delivered to the U.S. Army Air Forces on May 6th. She served initially as part of Air Transport Command at the Specialized Night and Instrument Training School at Rosencrans Army Airfield in St. Joseph, Missouri. This was followed by a move to Memphis, Tennessee in June, 1945, but her stay there did not last long as she was retired for storage and eventual resale at the massive Walnut Ridge site in Arkansas. While she did not see combat in WWII, she has had a significant, although somewhat sobering civilian career, being one of the aircraft used to pioneer the concept of ‘smoke jumping’. Smoke jumpers are firefighters who parachute into the wilderness to combat forest fires.

This is the airplane that flew the smokejumpers that fought the Mann Gulch Fire near Helena in 1949. Twelve smokejumpers and 1 smoke chaser perished in the Mann Gulch Fire. N24320 is displayed in the Museum of Mountain Flying as a tribute to those smokejumpers and all smokejumpers that help protect the forests of the United States.

While under the ownership of Johnson Flying Service, N24320 crashed in water killing the pilot and 9 passengers. She was repaired and put back into service. Johnson Flying Service, which was a FBO in Missoula, is significantly represented in the Museum and provided much of the training and first piloting opportunities for many of our Museum members.

N24320 was located by Museum founder Dick Komberec, a retired Delta pilot whose early piloting experience included working for Johnson Flying Service. Mr. Komberec spotted N24320 near Atlanta, Georgia during one of his flights to that area, and the Museum undertook fundraising efforts to purchase the airplane which was flown back to Missoula in and has since been a centerpiece of the Museum." <a href="https://missmontanatonormandy.com/miss-montana-2/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">missmontanatonormandy.com/miss-montana-2/</a>

-On 6 June 2019, for the 75th anniversary and as part of the commemorations of D-Day landings, a flight of 21 Dakotas carrying paratrooper re-enactors flew from Duxford in England to Sannerville in Normandy. This was one of the largest, perhaps the largest, gatherings of C-47/DC-3/Dakota aircraft for over 75 years. <a href="http://www.curbsideclassic.com/rampside-classic/runway-classic-the-c-47-skytrain-dakota-over-normandy-75-years-on/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.curbsideclassic.com/rampside-classic/runway-classic-t...</a>