Historic C-47 Departs for Normandy

Stephen Pope

Thursday, May 15, 2014 at 07:34 PM ET

Verified

** Whiskey 7**

Key Takeaways:

Historic C-47 "Whiskey 7," a lead ship in the 1944 Normandy invasion, has departed from New York to travel to France for the 70th D-Day anniversary.
The aircraft will undertake a 3,600-mile journey across the North Atlantic to participate in "Return to Normandy" tribute flights.
These tribute flights will involve eight paratrooper jumps over Omaha Beach between June 4 and 8, commemorating its original mission.
Whiskey 7, which dropped paratroopers over Saint-Mere Eglise in 1944, was restored to its WWII appearance in 2005 and is part of the National Warplane Museum collection.

See a mistake? Contact us.

Whiskey 7, a Douglas C-47 that flew as a lead ship dropping paratroopers during the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, embarked today on another important mission, taking off from a grass strip in central New York to travel back in time to France for the 70th anniversary of the D-Day storming of the beaches during World War II.

The historic airplane, in the collection of the National Warplane Museum in Geneseo, New York, is making the 3,600-mile trip across the North Atlantic, and will arrive with plenty of time to spare for its departure from RAF Duxford in England to buzz the skies over Omaha Beach in early June. The “Return to Normandy” tribute flights by Whiskey 7 will involve eight jumps by 18 jumpers each to take place between June 4 and 8.