In 1991 Delta learned that its original Ship 41 was in San Juan, Puerto
Rico, on Cargo duty. Because Ship 41 was one of the earliest DC-3s received
by Delta, they initiated a rescue mission to return it to the US for full
restoration. By 1993 it was ready for the flight back to the US and Norm
Topshe, a retired Delta pilot at the time, was one of the pilots.
Delta had last flown Ship 41, NC28341, in 1958 ... forty-five years earlier.
Sergio Rodrigo was the second pilot and mechanic Gene Christian rode the
jump seat. Ft. Lauderdale, Florida was the scheduled first stop, 900 NM from
San Juan. The route was almost entirely over open water.
Norm Topshe recounts that difficult flight:
“Because we would have a long over-water flight we
replaced the two engines. We were 3500 lbs under the normal empty weight of
18,500 lbs because the aircraft was in the cargo configuration and had no
seats. With 800 gallons of fuel our gross weight was 21,700 lbs and we
burned 85 gallons per hour running the engines at 550 hp.
Sergio Rodrigo and I took turns flying the aircraft while the other one
handled the navigation, emergency procedures, flaps, gear and brakes. I
piloted the takeoff from San Juan on Runway 10, while Sergio and Gene
Christian, the mechanic in the jump seat, took pictures out of the windows.
We stayed on the runway heading for only about one-half mile, because we had
to avoid hotels ahead, then we turned left toward the ocean.
Just after takeoff from San Juan, while still in sight of the airport and
before reaching 5000 ft we lost all hydraulics.
We discussed whether to turn around and land at San Juan or continue to Ft.
Lauderdale. Either way we’d have to land using emergency procedures so we
decided to continue to Ft. Lauderdale because we didn’t know how long –
maybe a week or more – we’d be stuck in San Juan awaiting repair.
Every 30 minutes we checked the carburetors for ice.
Halfway through the flight, at about Grand Turk Island, the radio stopped
functioning.
We could not transmit to anyone. We had been in communication with Delta’s
dispatchers and they did not know what happened to us.
We lost all electrical power, too. We had our compass and a handheld GPS to
keep us on track so we never flew more than one mile off our planned course.
At one point we thought we were starting to have a right engine problem, but
that was not the case.
About 150 miles out of Ft. Lauderdale we ran into low clouds, and as we had
no chance to top the cover, and were flying VFR, we dropped from 5500 ft
with only 1 mile or less of visibility to 3500 ft with 3 miles of
visibility.
For our approach to Ft. Lauderdale, Sergio flew the plane and I handled the
emergency landing procedures, manually pumping the gear because the
hydraulics were gone. Without hydraulics we also had no flaps or brakes.
We circled the airport once from the south to the west and then landed on
Runway 27R, with our final approach beginning at about 2.5 to 3 miles from
the runway. The flight plan we filed was for 6 hours and 30 minutes, and we
flew it in 6 hours and 31 minutes!
When we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale everyone was surprised to see us!
“What happened? Where have you been?” they asked. “We thought “you were
down!”
Since they had lost communication with us, they had contacted the Coast
Guard who was out looking for us.
We spent several days in Ft. Lauderdale where the hydraulics, electrical
system, and radios were repaired and then flew the 500 NM to Peachtree
airport, about 18 miles SW of Atlanta, as it would have less traffic than
Atlanta. Then three or four days later we flew the final few miles to
Atlanta International.
Ship 41 was completely restored in Atlanta, including sending the engines to
Wright for a major overhaul at $32,000 apiece.
Those engines are still being used today with a second set for backup! They
were good engines! That saved us! Everything else quit but those engines we
replaced in San Juan kept working!”
After five years and $5-million of painstaking restoration Ship 41 was
returned to better than new condition, thanks to hundreds of volunteers and
Delta mechanics. James Ray headed the restoration project.
Ship 28341 was the first aircraft to carry passengers for a scheduled
airline, Delta, and then be later recovered and restored to airworthy
condition. No other airline has this distinction. Delta's Air Transport
Heritage Museum in Atlanta is the direct outgrowth of the Ship 41
restoration project.
Today, from April to September, Delta flies Ship 41 on tour throughout the
United States.