Thursday, May 15, 2014
GENESEO, N.Y. (AP) — A World War II transport plane that dropped American paratroopers on Normandy has departed a western New York airfield for D-Day’s 70th anniversary commemoration in France.
The Douglas C-47 restored at the National Warplane Museum in Geneseo took off this afternoon from the museum’s airfield. It’s one of the last planes of its kind still flying and the only one from the U.S. participating in the June 6 events in Normandy.
The twin-propeller plane known as Whiskey 7 is one of several C-47s scheduled to be part of the D-Day anniversary, with parachutists made up of active and retired military personnel scheduled to be dropped over the plane’s original jump zone.
Five pilots will take turns flying the plane to Europe.