C-47 Skytrain - Castle Air Museum

Douglas C-47 Skytrain "7th Heaven"

This particular aircraft, serial #43-15977, served as a transport in the Caribbean supplying bases engaged in anti-submarine warfare. These bases had originally been established to protect the Panama Canal but duties were extended when the German u-boats became active in the area in mid-1942.

Stenciled below the cockpit windows are the names: Pilot MSGT (Master Sergeant) Gene Morton, Co-pilot TSGT (Technical Sergeant) Ron Ball. The aircraft is also painted with D-Day Invasion stripes (black and white) as seen under the wings in the top photo, and on the rear of the fuselage in the photo below, right. These stripes were used only in the European Theater.

This Skytrain wears the nose art "7th Heaven", whose image is similar in style to the "Vargas girls" published in the Esquire Magazine during WWII — characterized by beautiful, elegant, women, with idealized proportions. The pin-ups wore revealing but elegant or stylish attire, and were painted in sensuous, seductive poses. During WWII there was no official policy regarding nose art but it was more frequently discouraged in the rear areas and stateside. Nose art was allowed as a moral booster and for busy-work to keep soldiers occupied during "down" time.  

In contrast, nose-art was much more limited in the British and German air forces with pin-up girls rarely being allowed as subject matter. In the Russian Air Force, much latitude was granted for patriotic slogans but Lend-Lease aircraft painted with pin-up girls were criticized and systematically painted over.

According to museum information, this C-47 Skytrain "later served as an airways inspection aircraft for the FAA, flight checking radio navigation facilities and instrument landing systems".

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