Hello everyone! This past weekend while doing some routine maintenance on Whiskey 7 I disovered some metal fragments in her #2 engine. We aren’t entirely sure what has failed, but it doesn’t really matter, either the way the engine has to be replaced.
It has been a rough season for the museum due to Covid-19, shows were cancelled, and we weren’t able to start doing ride flights (our main source of revenue) until just recently.
Whiskey 7 had to have her #1 engine replaced last year, and by the time that was said and done it totaled roughly $80,000.
A fundraiser has been started on Facebook for the #2 engine replacement. Any donations would be greatly appreciated by myself and the museum. I will be there every Saturday along with several other volunteers pulling the engine. Even if you can’t donate if you could please share the post I would greatly appreciate that! Thank you so much! Link for the fundraiser:
As a side note, a bunch of us do not use Facebook (and never will), so giving up a bit more info on the project and the museum, might help in your funds drive.
From other posts, I know that Whiskey 7 is a C-47, but I for one, don’t know where you folks are located or any other organizational / contact information.
People tend to give more easily when they know the intended recipient.
Thanks for the tip! First time trying to gear up a fundraiser.
National Warplane Museum is located in Geneseo NY. We are a non profit organization made up of primarily volunteers and are dedicated to the preservation of war time history. We have many aircraft in our collection, but our flagship aircraft is a 1943 Douglas C-47 Skytrain dubbed “Whiskey 7” She was the lead plane on the second wave of D-Day and dropped paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne division over St. Mere Eglise, in Normandy. We fly here around to various air shows and events, and offer ride flights, to help keep the history alive, and teach younger generations about the sacrifices men and women made.
More information can be found on the museums website, as well as donations. Every bit of any donation will go directly to replacing Whiskey 7’s #2 engine. Thank you all again!
I passed on the info to a local aircraft collection . . . Hopefully they will get together and some good will come of it. Again, good luck on the funds drive.
You may want to try contacting the local chapters of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. More than likely they have a paratrooper or two among their roles who would be interested in helping to raise funds for a piece of airborne history like Whiskey 7. And they can also spread the word to the national organizations.
#1 was just replaced last year. It failed during an event in Ohio in August of 2019. It took two months for us to get her home. Several weekends in the hangar working cleaning and inspecting the prop, oil tank, lines, cooler, and transferring all the accesories from the old engine to the new one. A crew went down removed the old engine, brought it back for us to do all the work, then hauled the new engine down, put it on the plane and flew her home in October of 2019.
