Scott Glover's N5106X: Another Of The Magnificent Planes And Pilots From 'The Last Time'

The Last Time was an organization created for the sole purpose of reuniting flying examples of the Douglas DC-3 and the people associated with them, for one last time. The goal of the organization was to celebrate this aircraft and these people. Twenty-six DC-3/C-47 aircraft converged at Rock Falls, Illinois for a weekend long celebration, while over 15,000 guests visited the airport to see these historic airplanes and meet their crews. It was a wonderful reunion where old friends met and new friendships developed. It is unlikely that such a gathering will ever occur again.

Scott Glover was one of the pilots and owners who made the sacrifice to get to Rock Falls. His C-47 has an extraordinary history... This aircraft was built as a C-47-DL sn 42-32832 and delivered to the U.S. Army Air Force on February 11, 1943. It was assigned to the 53rd Troop Carrier Squadron and on May 4, 1943 Secret orders were received: "...proceed in aircraft as indicated from Morrison Field, West Palm Beach, Florida via Marreckech, French Morocco, North Africa to Western Task Force, reporting upon arrival there to the Commanding General, North African Theater of Operations for duty and assignment." 42-32832 successfully dropped 18 Paratroopers on June 6, 1944 during the D-Day invasion with no casualties. But by June 6th, three of the paratroopers dropped were killed in action. 42-32832 is the only surviving C-47 from the original 13 that formed the 53rd Troop Carrier Squadron.

By July 16, 1945 this aircraft had made it back to the United States where it was assigned registration number NC75412 and converted to a DC-3C by the Executive Transport Corporation. After conversion the aircraft was sold to General Motors, Inc., in Detroit, Michigan, where it was assigned a new registration number, N5106. In May 1967, the aircraftft was re-registered as N5106X and during November 1967, it was donated to the Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University, at Carbondale, Illinois who installed a 24-passenger configuration.

The aircraft was sold to Henry Oliver III (Santa Fe, NM) in July 1985 and attended the EXPO 86 DC-3 fly-in at Abbotsford, Canada. Henry sold it to Bygon Aviation where it was flown on a 135 certificate for a short period of time. It was then sold to the David Nickolas Organ Donor Awareness Foundation Inc and operated by heart transplant recipient, Rodney DeBaun.

Glover bought the plane from Rodney on August 4, 2000 and built a grass strip and hanger for it (XS70) in Mt. Pleasant Texas. A second new engine has recently been installed and the airframe currently has just over 18,000 flight hours on the newly painted airframe. 

FMI: www.thelasttime.org, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, http://twitter.com/AeroNews