What's Up Doc from Palm Springs Air Museum

The Palm Springs Air Museum’s C-47 is “What’s Up Doc?”, an airworthy Douglas C-47B Skytrain with a particularly interesting international history.

The aircraft is U.S. Army Air Forces serial 44-76423, construction number 32755/16007. It was built at Douglas’ Oklahoma City plant and entered British service as a Dakota IV, RAF serial KN381.  It was delivered to RAF No. 187 Squadron in March 1945.

Its postwar career was unusually long and varied. The museum records its subsequent service as Belgium beginning in 1949, the French Air Force beginning in 1952, and the Israeli Air Force from 1967 until 1997. After leaving military service it was eventually acquired by Cascade Air, and the Palm Springs Air Museum purchased it in October 2003.

Today it is one of PSAM’s principal flying aircraft and is used in the museum’s Warbird Ride program, commemorative flights and air-show appearances. It retains the classic C-47 configuration with two Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radials producing about 1,200 hp each. The museum lists a 95-foot wingspan, 64-foot-6-inch length and wartime capacity of as many as 28 paratroopers.

One important distinction: this particular airframe was not one of the C-47s that dropped American paratroopers over Normandy on June 6, 1944—it was built later. Its importance is that it is an authentic wartime-production C-47 that subsequently served with several Allied and friendly air forces for more than half a century. The museum uses it to represent the broader C-47/Dakota story, including the aircraft type’s crucial role in Sicily, Normandy and worldwide military transport operations.

The current “What’s Up Doc?” nose art and large “3X” markings are presentation markings, rather than evidence that this particular airplane carried those markings during its RAF wartime service. Its documented RAF identity was KN381.

The original aircraft was Douglas C-47A-20-DK, USAAF serial 42-93003, construction number 12866. It entered U.S. Army Air Forces service on March 27, 1944, went to the Eighth Air Force on April 16, and then to the Ninth Air Force on April 27, 1944. It was assigned to the 438th Troop Carrier Group, based at RAF Greenham Common, England. The wartime serial record specifically identifies 42-93003 as being named “What’s Up Doc.”

Its most important combat mission came only weeks after arriving in England.

D-Day — June 5/6, 1944: 42-93003 participated in Mission Albany, carrying paratroopers of the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division into Normandy. The U.S. Air Force confirms that the 438th TCG launched from Greenham Common carrying the 502nd PIR during the opening airborne phase of the invasion.

So the real What’s Up Doc? was an actual D-Day combat C-47, not simply an aircraft painted later to represent one.

It fought again in Operation Varsity

The aircraft remained with the 438th Troop Carrier Group throughout the European war. By early 1945 the group had moved to Prosnes/A-79 near Reims, France.

On March 24, 1945, 42-93003 participated in Operation Varsity, the enormous airborne crossing of the Rhine. It carried 18 paratroopers of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division, toward the drop zone near Diersfordt, northwest of Wesel, Germany.

There is unusually good documentation for this flight. Research based on an 88th Troop Carrier Squadron pilot's logbook identifies the crew as:

• 1st Lt. Andrew Chambers — pilot

• 2nd Lt. George E. Coutts — co-pilot

• T/Sgt. Dennis Holliday — crew chief

• S/Sgt. John Salisbury — radio operator

The aircraft flew as Chalk 90, the final aircraft in its Varsity serial.

What happened to the original?

It survived combat.

After Germany surrendered, 42-93003 remained with the 438th. On September 30, 1945, it was damaged in a taxiing accident at Hanau/Langendiebach, Germany (Y-91). Rather than being repaired for continued service, the aircraft was eventually salvaged on March 14, 1946.