007 Relations

Vehicle Bond drives

Notes

In the DC-3 Camille and Bond are trying to reach the Tierra Project - an area Greene is very interested in and aiming to accuire. 

When they gets airborne the airplane owner informs Quantum of their departure. And his tip leads to a surprise attack on Camille and Bond as they approach the Tierra Project area. They are attacked by a black villain fighter SF-260 and briefly a Bell 204 Huey helicopter. After a quite impressive and in fact long aerial combat (An honour to this epic transporter which became famous as strong and very solid troop carrier during WWII) - The unarmed DC-3 is crippled despite all Bonds evasive manoeuvres, but he manage to make the attacker crash. Unfortunately the DC-3 is too badly damaged and as the mountains does not have any plain ground for a crash landing, Camille and Bond saves their lives after a dramatic parachute jump that ends in a sinkhole.

DC-3 was an answer to the American Airlines call for the transcontinental flights need. This twin engine metal monoplane, developed as a larger version of the Douglas DC-2, was originally equipped with 14 beds. In parallel version with 21 passenger seats was qualified.

The plane proved its exceptional qualities in flight and in service - was fast, had a good range and could operate from short runways. It was also reliable, easy to maintain and carried passengers in greater comfort than previous version. Pilots were very satisfied with its resistance and manoeuvre capabilities, despite fact that piloting required a lot of force.

Civil DC-3 production ended in 1942 with only 607 aircraft being produced. But due to WWII the Douglas company developed to a military version called C-47 Skytrain in USA. The British RAF nicknamed it "Dakota"  (from acronym DACoTA = Douglas Aircraft COmpany Transport Aircraft). The C-47 Skytrain/Dakota was a Douglas milestone. With Russian and after-the-war Japanese Licence constructions, over 16.000 were built in mainly for troops transport (24 soldiers or 28 paratroopers) as well as cargo planes. 

After the war lot of C-47 were demilitarised and sold cheap to the airline companies. Due to its performance and price, they locked up the marketplace for newer models for very very long time. 

At the beginning of the 21. century there are still few hundreds of DC-3 planes in service mainly as transport aircrafts.

In Quantum of Solace the plane registration CP265 points that plane could be owned by Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano and registered in early 50's, which puts a lot of reality to the film. The DC-3's were used for the filming.

Douglas DC-3-G102A registered N26MA, serial number 2169 was the main star. Flown by  Skip Evans, who owns this plane. He did all the stunt work on the stage of Baja California, in Mexico. However due to technical/mechanical issues this plane was unable to fly to Chile for more scenes. Director Mark Forster took a lot of effort to find another one there and succeeded. The second DC-3 used is registration N12BA , serial number 10035, took the job in March-April 2008 in Antofagasta, Chile, flown by Frank Moss.  

Off topic - specially for the fans of this classic plane - Skip Evans in his company Paralift Inc. owns two DC-3 machines. Second machine, (recently N20TW, now N25648 , S/N 2236) can be seen as main star in quite interesting project of the short series "Commander" made for the PME Legend company (clothes), shot in 2014/2015. Doing the research for this note I marked that N20TW is usually taken as a 'Quantum of Solace' star...probably due the fact it seems to be unbelievable that 2 so marvellous machines could stay on one playground.

Technical Data

• Manufacturer: Douglas Aircraft Company
• Model:DC-3 cargo
  
• Type: twin engine metal monoplane
• Year:1940
• First flight: 17.12.1935
• Engine:2x Pratt & Whitney R-1830-S1C3-G Twin Wasp; 1200hp each
• Fuselage length: 19,65 m (64,5 ft)
• Height: 5,17 m (17,0 ft)
• Wing span: 28,96 m (95,0 ft)
• EMpty Weight: 7.650kg (16.865 lbs)
• Max take-off weight: 11.430kg (25.199 lbs)
• Maximum speed: 381 km/h
• Service Ceiling: 7.071 m (23.200 ft)
• Range: 3.421 km (2.125 mi.)
• Capacity: 14 beds or 21 passengers or 24-28 troopers
• Crew: 2 or 3
• ID: CP265

Gadgets

• None

Sources and Links

• Classic planes in Southwest USA 2008
• Youtube
• Youtube

Related BMT 216A Page

• Bell 204 HUEY