{"nrhp_refnum":"96000857","name":"US Army Aircraft C-53-DO-41-20124","other_names":["US Navy Aircraft (R4D-3 BuNo 05078) DC-3"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"1.25 mi. E of jct. of IL 9 and IL 5","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bloomington","county":"McLean County","state":"IL","lat":40.48539548200006,"lon":-88.93124012399994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1996-08-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Transportation","Military"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Douglas C-53 \"Skytrooper\" passenger/light cargo aircraft (Army serial 41-20124, civil registration N763A, later Navy R4D-3 BuNo 05078), manufactured in Santa Monica, California on March 11, 1942 and located at Bloomington-Normal Airport, Illinois.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as a representative example of the 399 C-53 Skytroopers built by Douglas for the Army Air Force, a military variant of the DC-3, the dominant twin-engine transport of the 1940s. The aircraft also carries a Navy designation through transfer from an Army contract. The excerpt discusses the military role of DC-3 variants in World War II, but the full significance statement is truncated.","narrative":"This is a Douglas C-53 \"Skytrooper,\" a military passenger and light cargo version of the DC-3 airliner, built in Santa Monica, California, on March 11, 1942, and now kept at Bloomington-Normal Airport in Illinois. It was one of 399 C-53s made for the Army Air Force, and it also carried the Navy designation R4D-3 after a transfer from an Army contract. The aluminum twin-engine aircraft has a 95-foot wingspan and a 64-foot fuselage. Its engines are Pratt and Whitney R-1830-90D radials, upgraded from the original factory type. After the war the cabin was converted to a civil layout in 1947, with seating for twenty-six passengers, a buffet and a lavatory, and the exterior is painted in a 1950s Ozark Airlines scheme. The DC-3 design emerged in 1936 as the leading twin-engine transport and served widely in World War II, which forms the historical context for this surviving example.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Douglas Aircraft Company, Inc., Santa Monica, California","architectural_style":"OTHER: Passenger/Light Cargo Aircraft","criteria":[],"status_note":"Currently located at Bloomington-Normal Airport; current function is listed as museum. Cabin converted to civil layout in 1947 and painted in a 1950s Ozark Airlines pattern.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.461399-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/95/8936/28893695/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/96000857.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893695","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_R4D-3_N763A","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7274784"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/mclean-county/us-army-aircraft-c-53-do-41-20124-96000857/"}