TULSA. Okla. — The Tulsa Air and Space Museum hosted a rare World War II aircraft, a two engine military transport craft C-47 called “Hairless Joe.”
The plane is based at Willow Run Airport in Michigan at The Michigan Flight Museum and made Tulsa its first stop as part of its regular flight tour.
“We came straight across out of the Detroit area,” said Grant Schwartz, a pilot with The Michigan Flight Museum. “We had about five hours of flying from the Detroit area to Tulsa in the DC-3.”
Over the next few weeks, the plane will be flying to various museums. “It’s kind of an outreach program. It allows us to engage with other museums around the country,” said Schwartz.
The Michigan Flight Museum and The Tulsa Air and Space Museum actually have an interesting connection. Schwartz explained, “Both our museums have a similar theme in the history of the arsenal democracy and the production of B-24 aircraft.”
Schwartz described the plane he had flown to Tulsa, emblazoned with the name Hairless Joe. The name Hairless Joe represents an aircraft by the same name flown by Lt. Col. Dick Cole in the 319th Troop Carrier Squadron within the 1st Air Commando.