The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire decided this spring to organize a virtual flight around the world, using their flight simulator. When the museum had to close due to the coronavirus pandemic it was decided that an online resource such as the virtual flight would nicely fulfill the museum’s educational mission. So Many Aircraft assisted the museum in producing the Web site for this program, using our own site generation tools.
The aircraft chosen for this mission was a Douglas C-47, the military version of the classic DC-3 airliner. As the mission progressed, the museum was able to attract more and more sponsors, the logos of which then adorned the aircraft.
Each flight segment resulted in a new Web post, with a video recording of the highlights of the particular leg. On Memorial Day the video was streamed live, as we flew over the beaches of Normandy; on Independence Day, the live stream covered a flight from Naples to Rome, as ancient Rome was an inspiration to our Founding Fathers.
On August 15th, when the museum re-opened, a special celebration was held at the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, and an actual DC-3 flew in, as if returning from the trip. The aircraft was N61981, an original Douglas DST, whose owner Chris Siderwicz normally keeps her at Marston Mills on Cape Cod. Interestingly this aircraft is the former N35PB of the Provincetown-Boston Airlines. In front of some 300 spectators, the aircraft made a low pass over the airport and then landed; the intrepid “aeronauts” (i.e., the volunteers who built this program as well as some of the sponsors) then received a key to the City of Manchester from Mayor Joyce Craig who also read a special proclamation to commemorate the event and the program.
Hopefully we can continue this educational program as it has received quite a bit of attention particularly from many teachers.
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