One of the most remarkable designs based upon the C-47, must have being the XCG-17 glider. The at Long Beach built C-47, 41-18496, was stripped from its engines, and the empty shells were streamlined covered. To prevent tail heaviness, the nose was made heavier with 180 kilos of lead. The standard weight of an C-47 was 8256 kg, was brought back to just 5000 kg. The room for the radio operator/navigator was also stripped from the plane, so an extra space was created for extra cargo (now up to 7000 kg), or to have room for a total of 40 men on board.

First flight of XCG-17 was made in June 1944 from Clinton County Army Air Base, Wilmington, Ohio. Pilot Major D.O. Dodd could report that the aircraft behaved wonderful as a glider. It was de largest glider the American would built during the Second World War. The stall speed with a cargo load of 7000 kg was extreme low, 50 km/h (35 m/h). Pulled by the C-54 Skymaster, a speed could be made between 430/460 km/h (300 m/h). Despite the good results, no further attempts were made, and the prototype was brought over on August 15, 1946, to Davis Monthan, Arizona. In 1949 engines were reinstalled and sold as N69030.

In Greenville, Main, US, a unique project was to realize a creation of an XC-47C ‘floatplane’. Ex-DC-3A/C-53D-DO, 41-68834, Skytrooper, with the civil registration N130Q, from Folsom Flying Service, was given a couple of Edo floats (with landing gear installed into the floats) .In September 1990 it received the 'experimental type certificate' and was the ‘Moosehead Express’ ready for its maiden flight.

The history of this version started during the Second World War. With the nickname ‘Dumbo’, the XC-47 (42-5671) was a strange one in the line of prototypes. It had enormous floats, with in them a landinggear and room for 1136 liter of fuel. First testing was done at Bennet Field, New York. ‘Watertesting’ was done by ‘Air Transport Command from Presque Isle, in Main. Only five C-47C Floatplanes were constructed. Three went to New Guinea, and at least one went to Alaska.

Because of the floats, the speed was reduced by 30 miles (48 km/h). Starting from the water was difficult, because the water had to be smooth as a mirror, and a start from land was also a struggle. From Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, there was some testing done to assist the take off with JATO bottles (Jet Assistance Take Off). The USAAF received 150 sets of the Edo model 28 floats. Two C-47C were placed on the inventory of the USAAF, the 42-92577 and 42-108868. A third one (the 42-92699) was converted back to a C-47A and left on December 8, 1944, for the US 5th Air Force which was then posted in Brisbane, Australia.

The XC-47C prototype was lost on November 13, 1943, while doing overload capacity tests from Mitchell and Floyd Bennet Fields. The plane crashed into Jamaica Bay, Long Island, New York. The crew was unhurt. Two C-47C’s survived the war, and returned to civil conversions.

After the Soviet-Union had purchased 18 DC-3’s, they started building this aircraft as the Li-2. First designation of the Li-2 was the PS-84, and was produced at the Lisunov factoruies in Tashkent and Chimky from 1939 until 1952. A total of 6.157 would be produced.

Was the L1-2 at first built for the Russian airline Aeroflot and the Red Army, they found also their way in other Communist eastern bloc countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Poland) and Asia (China, North Korea, and Mongolia). The engines for the Li-2 were 9 cylinder Shvetsov Ash-62IR radial engines, which gave the plane a speed of at least 320 km/h (200 m/h). A standard C-47 could reach a speed of 365 km/h ( 225 m/h).

Nowadays there are still a lot of DC-3’s and C-47’s flying around. And not just as a nostalgic look back of ‘good old time of flying’, but there are still used as cargo plane or passenger airliner. But, these are now slowly winding down, and more and more of these old work horses are be kept airworthy by groups of aircraft enthusiasts. In Holland is also a group to be found, the Dutch Dakota Association. Founded in 1982, lacked in their year of existence an aircraft. But two Transavia airline pilots, founders of the association Anne Cor Groeneveld and Gerrit van Gelder began looking for a suitable aircraft. In Finland a C-47A-70DL was found. It was purchased and on April 18, 1983 it made her first test flight under Dutch registration as PH-DDA. But it took a whole year for the Dakota PH-DDA would arrive in Holland, but on April 18, 1984 it touched down on Dutch soil.

The PH-DDA became a regular guest at air shows and the association began looking for another Dakota. This aircraft was located on the Island of Malta. This second Dakota came to Holland in May 1987, with the Dutch registration PH-DDZ. Beside these two Dakota’s, a Stinson L5 Sentinel (PH-PBB)was purchased in 1989. During the nineties of the last century, two DC-4 Skymaster’s arrive from South Africa, the PH-DDS and the PH-DDY (the last one as provider for parts).

On September 25, 1996 went a shock through Holland when PH-DDA went into the Wadden Sea, just north of Den Oever, after the left engine failed. All 23 passengers on board and the crew of three lost their life. The PH-DDA, which once had played a small role in the movie A Bridge Too Far had 38.338 trouble free hours on her clock when disaster struck. Investigation brought to light, that the mechanism to feather the propeller did not function properly. It happened just after takeoff, and the pilots did everything they could do, but it was a lost cause.

In 1998 the PH-PBA was handed over by the PBA Association to the DDA. The ‘PB’ in the registration, of this former coverment aircraft, stood for Prins Bernhard. This aircraft will carry the name ‘Prinses Amalia’, after the crown princess of Holland. A year later, in 1999, the PH-DDZ 'Doornroosje' is after 12 years of restoration ready for her maiden flight, which is done on May 7, of the same year.

In 2003 the DDA is going to use the JAR-OPS norm, and becomes the only Dutch historic ‘birds’ that uses this norm, but it allows the association to take passengers on board on a nostalgic, but safe trip. Seventy years after the first flight of the DC-3, in 2005, the DDA changes her name in DDA Classic Airlines, with a new logo a year later. The DC-3 will be for many more years a fantastic sight to see, and to hear,…

But in the fall of 2016, PH-DDZ 'Doornroosje' was sold tot the Aviodrome near Lelystad, Netherlands. This aircraft was grounded in 2012 after an engine had to be replaced, but no funding could be found.

Further more, the sponsoring for 2023 was uncertain when Jumbo supermarket was pulled out. Was the last DC-3 of DDA kept on the ground? But the season for 2023 seems to survive when new sponsorship and donations were found at the last moment.