Delta Ship 41 : Operational history, Restoration Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Delta Ship 41

Douglas DC-3 that flew for Delta Air Lines

Delta Ship 41

Delta Ship 41 in Historic Hangar 1
Type	Douglas DC-3
Construction number	3278
Manufactured	1940
Registration	N28341
Preserved at	Delta Flight Museum

Delta Ship 41 is a Douglas DC-3 that flew for Delta Air Lines from 1941 to 1958.^{[citation needed]}

Operational history

Delta's Ship 41 was the second of Delta's first five iconic DC-3 airplanes to be delivered from Douglas Aircraft Co. between November 1940-January 1941:

The first DC-3, Delta Ship 40, was christened "City of Atlanta" with a bottle of Coca-Cola. It went into scheduled service on December 24, 1940.
Ship 41 went into service on January 19, 1941, flying from Atlanta to Ft. Worth, Texas.^[1] Delta Air Lines used the airplane for 17 years until 1958.^[2]

Ship 41 was acquired by another airline in Delta’s family tree—North Central. North Central became part of Delta's history through its merger with Northwest Airlines in 2008.^[3]

The aircraft then flew for a number of different airlines before finally being operated by Air Puerto Rico, a Puerto Rican cargo airline company.

Restoration

In 1990, a group of Delta retirees and enthusiasts located one of Delta's first five DC-3s in order to restore it to flying condition. Their investigation led them to "Ship 41", then flying as a cargo aircraft, registered N29PR for a local Puerto Rican airline, Air Puerto Rico. In 1993, Delta bought the aircraft from Air Puerto Rico and it was flown to Atlanta, where it underwent a five-year restoration and is now on display at the Delta Flight Museum.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b "Delta Douglas DC-3 Ship 41". DeltaMuseum.org. Delta Flight Museum. Retrieved June 1, 2023.
^ "Pioneering DC-3 celebrates 75th anniversary - Delta News Hub". News.Delta.com. Archived from the original on March 16, 2017. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
^ "Northwest Airlines". DeltaMuseum.org. Retrieved October 2, 2019.