Douglas DC-6

In case you need a refresher, though, a Convair 340 is a piston engine airplane, big radial piston engine airplane.

I mean, it wasn't, in terms of scale, like anywhere near the DC-6, but it was decently sized.

What do we know about, uh, old radial engines?

Too many moving parts.

Well, what's the scoop? I don't know much, Doug.

El Paso Center reported a DC-6 dropped off their scan.

The next center in Mexico, Santa Rosa, didn't pick him up.

Oh, you think he's down? The airlines have been checking, but there's no sighting.

It has to be.

How come?

The way that DC-6 just dropped off the scopes.

For the couple of minutes he was between their ranges, he must have banked sharp to like a 90-degree head.

Now, for the DoD to have fake members created for the agency, that requires DoD approval of the creation of those operatives.

So the way that the U.S. government, and in particular the CIA, conducted offensive operations was they would have this like a DC-6 or like a DC-3, a Douglas aircraft, which is a fairly large aircraft at the time, propeller-driven aircraft.

They would make everyone in there a member of the Department of Defense.

They would have ID.

what about the um some prop liners because they seem to be pretty rare these days as well

yeah i mean actual prop liners the old wartime era ones there are lots of dc3s in heritage operation and Things like the DC-4, DC-6 are not really flying much now.

You see cargo ones and some heritage ones.

Later sort of turboprop ones, things like the early Embraers, like the Banzerati and the Brasilia, only flying in a few places.

So we needed corroboration.

And then we found a drug smuggling pilot who crashed a DC-6 with seven tons of pot.

We found him in Tennessee.

And he became, other than the eyewitness, the most instrumental person in the entire case.

But the first thing I said to him, I said, I got to ask you something, Bill.

I was a pilot myself.

So I said to him, how did you fly a DC-6 alone? And he goes, not very well, I guess.

A DC-6 takes three people.

It was like 25 below zero here with a northwest wind, which brought it down colder than that.

We got on a DC-6, I think it was, twin-engine prop, just like a culvert with wings, you know, and headed to San Diego.

Because at the time, before we left, they said, well, where do you want to go, San Diego or Great Lakes? And I thought, Great Lakes? No way.

If I'm going to go someplace, it's going to be someplace where it's kind of maybe comfortable.

It was so fascinating to see what corporate activations look like, what we did in New York and the amount of people that need to come together and all of the different sort of fingers, if you will, in the bull.

It was remarkable, the stuff we did that we were flying that DC-6 and the P-38 below the Manhattan city skyline and, and capturing some of the greatest video and had some of the most fun with the Red Bull soccer team came on board.

They made, they turned that DC six into a soccer pitch, had the soccer players go on there and then try to score a goal at the end of the DC six with these sort of soft soccer balls.

Everything they do, they it's extra.

It was remarkable, the stuff we did there.

We were flying that DC-6 and the P-38 below the Manhattan city skyline and, and capturing some of the greatest video and had some of the most fun with the Red Bull soccer team came on board.

They made, they turned that DC six into a soccer pitch, had the soccer players go on there and then try to score a goal at the end of the DC six with these sort of soft soccer balls.

Everything they do, they it's extra.