Douglas DC-3 —

Reg number N943DJ

Anyone know the story of this acft?

It looks like it has Super DC-3 nacelles (with gear doors) but std. DC-3 wings and tail. It also has some odd looking close cowlings, and large spinners, that I've never seen on a DC3 before.

I don't know the story on the engine cowlings, but here's a later photo by our Gary Schenauer, posted 4 years ago, that shows different cowlings and adds information regarding N943DJ...

https://flightaware.com/photos/view/368798-af55bc986fcdf5e573360fe0c3b04192c869847e/aircraft/N943DJ/sort/votes/page/1

There are two or three more recent photos of this DC-3 shared on FA that show the cowlings as seen in Gary's photo.

Gary provides the USAAF serial number of 42-47371, for which Joe Baugher's informative site gives this interesting history...

"47371 (MSN 7313) to RAF in India Sep 10, 1942 as FJ712. Returned to USAAF custody Dec 26, 1942. Sold Dec 21, 1945 at Dhub, India. Sold To Central Air Trsnsport (sic) Corp (CATC) of Beijing, China Feb 5, 1946. Sold to Civil Air Transport (CAT) of Taipei, Formosa Dec 19, 1949, and transferred to Hong Kong registered as N8336C. CAT was renamed Air Asia, Ltd, a subsidiary of Air America. Registered as N1794B Jul 22, 1953. Sold to TEMCO Aircraft Corp of Dallas, TX Dec 9, 1953 and registered as N67K. Reregistered as N47L Jan 12, 1954. Sold to Union Chemical and Materials Corp of Dallas, TX May 22, 1958. Sold to Southern airways (sic) Co of Atlanta, GA Jun 22, 1958 and reregistered N147M. To Mead Corp, Dayton, OH Jul 23, 1962. To Ohio Aviation Co of Vandalia, OH Apr 18, 1969, sold to Tecumseh Products of Tecumseh, MI. Donated to Kalamazoo Aviation History Dec 3,1982. Purchased by Warren Basler Oct 18, 1993. Used in production of 1994 film "Richie Rich". Began private ownership service Jul 5, 1999 as "The Spirit of Enterprise" with private user in Wisconsin. Re-registered as N943DJ."