By Robbie Culver
Kevin Conner is part of the WWII Airborne Demonstration Team based in Frederick, Oklahoma, that operates two World War II-era Douglas aircraft, the C-47 Boogie Baby and the C-49 Wild Kat. The group is at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Kevin said the group jumps in full authentic WWII gear with round parachutes. The mission of the team is to “Remember, Honor, Serve” to keep the memories of WWII veterans alive.
The team participates in some air shows as a static display, and at other air shows they do jump operations. The team jumping at AirVenture is a “single stick” of 16 jumpers.
The C-49 Wild Kat is on display in Boeing Plaza, and the team will be at Warbirds in Review on Thursday morning, July 25.
The parachute school is open for enrollment and is described as “an active WWII experience, named after the original parachute school at Fort Benning, Georgia. Students participate in a nine-day-long full immersion experience at our vintage WWII facility, Frederick Army Air Field, in Frederick, Oklahoma. This training experience culminates in five jumps from one of our two WWII troop transports.”
There is an original barracks and mess hall where students live during their training, and the training includes ground training and testing. Five successful jumps are required to receive parachute wings, just as was required in WWII. Students go to the parachute school three times a year, and when they graduate they can continue to make more jumps to qualify as an air show jumper.
According to Joe Glynda of the WWII Airborne Demonstration Team Foundation that operates the aircraft, the C-49 Wild Kat that is on display this week and used for the air show jumps was built for Eastern Air Lines as a DC-3. It was taken off the assembly line and assigned to the U.S. Army.
All the aircraft taken off the assembly line are designated as a C-49. A noticeable difference is visible in the Wright Cyclone engines in use. These engines only have one row of nine cylinders instead of the 14-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-1830 series Twin Wasp found on other DC-3/C-47 examples. Performance is similar between the two engines.
The cowling on the example on display is much shorter than those with the P&W engines. There is also no navigation dome on the upper fuselage of the C-49, as is found on the DC-3 and C-47. Cargo doors were installed after the aircraft was pulled off the assembly line for military service. The C-47 has a reinforced tail to allow loading jeeps and other equipment as well as towing gliders. The C-49 Wild Kat also has these modifications, but not all C-49s do.
The aircraft has no known overseas service and was largely used in the U.S. during the war as a transport aircraft. After the war, it was eventually used by Mission Air for service to and from Central/South America in a humanitarian mission role. The WWII Airborne Demonstration Team Foundation acquired the C-49 in 2009, brought it to Tulsa, and worked on it, disassembling it for a restoration. It was flying by 2017.
Joe said when the parachute school operates both aircraft, “it’s pretty awesome” to see a C-47 and a C-49 flying formation dropping jumpers.
Be sure to watch the WWII Airborne Demonstration Team as it remembers, honors, and serves veterans by jumping during the airshow, and visit Wild Kat in Boeing plaza, right by the B-52.
For more information, visit the team’s website at WWIIADT.org.