MISSOULA – Nearly one-third Montana’s population fought in World War II and to honor those who died on the beaches of Normandy, a group of smokejumpers will be taking a leap from Miss Montana, a historic C-47.
Now, after 11 months of preparation, she is ready to fly.
“This aircraft is going to represent this state specifically. It’s going to represent the effort of those Montanans who didn’t make it back. that made their sacrifice,” said Museum of Mountain Flying Parachute Coordinator Al Charters.
The group who had been working on the project hosted a gala at the Museum of Mountain Flying to celebrate the planes impending trip. They originally planned to sell 400 tickets but ended up selling close to 600.
It took a lot of hard work to get the plane ready and crews are excited to see it up in the air.
“There were times where you probably thought, wondered whether we could do this but then people would come in and they’d stand there and they’d say ‘my grandfather flew this plane in the war’ and people would cry. And you’d go, ‘this is worth it’,” said project manager Brian Douglas.
Some of the people who worked on the plane back in its glory days attended the event.
The group of smoke jumpers performed their first flight in the historic plane on Sunday.
