McGuffey grad starts group to restore, fly WWII aircraft
Angela Hudson, secretary/treasurer of Vintage Wings, displays her Vintage Wings T-shirt in front of the C-53.
Vintage Wings president and founder Jason Capra, left, and vice president Jeff Tramantano stand on the wing of the C-53, named “Beach City Baby.” Capra is a graduate of McGuffey High School.
Vintage Wings president Jason Capra and secretary/treasurer Angela Hudson stand in front of the main boarding door and baggage compartment after putting the downpayment on “Beach City Baby.”
Jason Capra climbs up the wing of the C-53 to open more inspection panels.
The Douglas C-53 Skytrooper in North Africa in 1943, with its “Operation Torch” paint scheme. This is how the aircraft will look once restored.
Jason Capra recalls the first time he flew a Douglas DC-3. It was at an air show in Topeka, Kan., where the owner ask if he wanted to co-pilot the old plane.
“Flying a DC-3 is like driving a 1940 Chevy as opposed to a 2015 Chevy. You have to actually fly it,” Capra said. “There’s nothing automated at all.”
Capra, 32, an airline pilot based out of Pittsburgh International Airport, is founder of Vintage Wings Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to restoring and flying historic aircraft. Incorporated earlier this year, the group attracted 18 members and has begun accepting donations to help Capra’s goal of bringing the history related to World War II-era aircraft to a broader audience than typically frequents air shows.
“I want to educate the younger generation on how to operate and fly these aircraft,” said Capra, a lifelong aviation buff and graduate of McGuffey High School.
The group has its sights on one of the surviving workhorses of Allied operations.
Members plan to purchase a Douglas C-53 Skytrooper with the eventual goal of restoring the plane to bring it to Washington County Airport and turn it into a flying classroom to help broaden the interest in aviation history.
Initially slated for commercial use as a DC-3A, the plane was on a factory floor in Santa Monica, Calif., when Japanese planes attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. As the United States mobilized for war, the plane was pressed into service along with other DC-3-type aircraft.
Redesignated as a Douglas C-53 Skytrooper, it was used as a transport plane during World War II, and was one of about 10,000 DC-3 type aircraft used in the war.
Planes of that type are so durable even 70 years later, while museums and history buffs collect them, some are still used in remote parts of Africa, South America and Alaska.
“They still don’t make an airplane that can do what this thing does,” said Ohio businessman Ken Joseph, who owns the Skytrooper that Vintage Wings is looking to buy. “It’ll haul five tons out of a 2,000-foot grass strip, and bring it back in.”
The group dubbed the plane “Beach City Baby” because it is currently stored at Beach City Airport in Ohio, where Joseph brought the plane after he purchased it from Ohio University in Athens in the 1990s.
After World War II, the plane was used as an airliner and later for corporate transport. From 1963 to 1983, it was “Buckeye One,” the Ohio governor’s official transport. Ohio University bought the plane to use the engines for its own aircraft before Joseph became the owner, refitted it with new engines and flew it to Beach City Airport. Capra spotted the plane there by chance during a detour on a road trip with his girlfriend in 2014.
Joseph said he’d spoken with museums and a private company about selling the aircraft before Capra approached him. He said he put those talks on hold to give Capra and his group a chance to buy the plane.
“I wanted to see the airplane fly. These people wanted to put it on display,” Joseph said. “I think this young Jason is going to get ‘er done.”
Capra and Joseph made an agreement for the group to buy the plane. With $20,000 down, Capra said that deposit will be forfeited if the group doesn’t come up with the remaining $75,000 for the purchase by March 2018, and Capra is looking for help from the public.
If they’re successful, Capra is hoping the group will be able to restore the plane enough to fly it to Washington County Airport. Eventually, he hopes it will fly it in air shows.
“This airplane represents a generation who did what needed to be done,” Capra said. “I’m asking for that same type of support on a smaller level to give back to an airplane that personalizes the selflessness of the whole country.”
Even as the group works to raise the rest of the money, Capra and other members have begun restoring it. Some traveled to Beach City late last month to inspect and clean the plane.
Capra has one reason to be optimistic: he said the plane’s years as Buckeye One meant it wasn’t flown as much as many of its counterparts.
“It’s got a long life ahead of it if we can save it,” he said.
For more information about joining or donating, visit www.vintagewingsinc.com.