PRESS RELEASE   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact:  Robert F. Salant, Public Affairs, (718) 791-4758, rsalant123@outlook.com

 Last Chance to Become a 101st Airborne Paratrooper is Saturday, November 15, 2025!

Two flights are scheduled for Saturday, November 15th, 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., and passengers must arrive one hour before their designated flight.  Rain date is Sunday, November 16th.

 Farmingdale, NY, October 27, 2025 – Commemorating D-Day and the End of World War II 80th Anniversary, American Airpower Museum (AAM) continued its popular C-47 Living History Flight Experiences during 2025 with another successful day of flights on Saturday, October 18, 2025.  Now, due to overwhelming popular demand, AAM has decided to add one final day of flights on Saturday, November 15, 2025.  Participants will climb aboard AAM’s iconic WWII C-47 joined by Living Historians, who simulate what U.S. Airborne Paratroopers experienced in their quest to liberate Europe from Nazi fascism!  AAM’s proud mission is to educate Long Islanders about the important role American airpower played, in defense of the United States during WWII and beyond. 

AAM’s Flight Experience is a one-of-a-kind immersive educational program, where living historians give a realistic 101st Airborne D-Day briefing prior to boarding the C-47 Skytrain.  Our reenactors will guide participants as they gear up and accompany you on our restored WWII C-47.  Once you’re airborne, you’ll fly over Long Island’s south shore beaches, providing the backdrop for a simulated jump and a sense of what U.S. Paratroopers felt on their June 5, 1944 momentous airborne assault, behind the lines of the Normandy Beach landings at Utah, Point Du Hoc, and Omaha Beach.  You’ll literally feel what Airborne Division Paratroopers experienced on their incredible 1,200-plane D-Day assault, when Allied forces stormed the coast of northern France!  

Your commanding officer is famous WWII Living Historian Robert Scarabino, Director of the 101st Airborne Living History Group, who has led AAM’s C-47 Living History Flights since 2003.  With his Living Historians, Honorary Captain Scarabino transports passengers back in time.  First up for Scarabino is a mission briefing at Hangar 3 for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation which launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe.  The 506 PIR CO starts with a strategic mission overview, utilizing charts and maps of the French coast.  He lays out your objective, to destroy a Nazi German garrison and secure causeways leading to the beach.  Before dismissing his paratroopers, he issues each a tourniquet, a box of what was meant to be morphine, plus a reminder to take out GI life insurance.  “You’ve been training hard and fast for the last two years,” Scarabino shouts to his brave paratroopers… “God bless you and I’ll see you in the assembly area.” 

The crew are all licensed pilots, some in the reserves or ex-military, who have flown our C-47 for many years.  During your flight experience, you’ll wear authentic reproduction M-42/M-43 field jackets, just like the ones worn by paratroopers during D-Day and Operation Market Garden, Replica “Steel Pot” G.I. helmets, and a simulated jump harness.  You’ll experience the sights, smells and sounds as the C-47’s mighty radial engines fire up and you’re off into the blue!  See, hear and feel what it was like for the crew operating their C-47 and paratroopers getting ready to make history on the night of June 5th and day of June 6, 1944. 

As you fly over Jones Beach, everyone lines up and relives the WWII experience right up to the final moment.  Paratroopers get ready to “cross the beaches,” they’ll “stand up” and “hook up,” simulating what it was like to be ready on the static line waiting for the green light.  (Don’t worry, there’s no real jumping, it’s all a living history re-enactment.)  After about half an hour in the air, the C-47 touches down at Republic and taxis back to Hangar 3.  Back in AAM’s hangar, participants pull a card from their pockets to learn the actual paratrooper’s fate whose identity each had assumed.  A teachable moment that they’ll never forget.  Afterwards, while still in military attire and gear, you can take photos with our living historians, crew and the C-47!

Cost for each C-47 flight is $375 per person.  To book your flight, go to www.americanairpowermuseum.org and click the “Flight Experience” tab.  Or call (516) 531-3950 or (631) 454-2039.  C-47 seats are allocated on a first come-first served basis, they book up real fast, so act today to reserve your flight!  You can also visit AAM’s Cockpit USA gift shop, Wednesday to Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Hangar 3, 1230 New Highway, Farmingdale, NY 11735.  

A flight experience entitles you to bring two additional guests, who can watch the flights take off and land, plus visit AAM’s exhibits all day at the discounted fee of $10 each.  For folks who want to visit AAM on November 15th, just to watch each flight and tour the museum, regular admission for adults is $18, seniors and veterans is $15, and children ages 3-12 is $12.  Children under 3 are FREE.  AAM members, active military/guard/reserves, FREE with ID.   (No tickets or pre-registration needed for regular admission.)  This is a wonderful way to educate Americans about WWII and our Greatest Generation veterans.  Support AAM’s mission to honor American military aviation history and our great veterans, by helping maintain and preserve their legacy, the museum’s iconic aircraft.  Help Keep ‘Em Flying!    

The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner.  It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II.  Over 10,000 C-47s were manufactured and used in every theater of the war.  Affectionately dubbed “Second Chance,” AAM’s iconic C-47 was built in 1944 and supplied to the U.S. Army Air Force.  She was transferred to the Royal Air Force in 1945 and flew in the Berlin Airlift (1948 – 1949) with the RAF, serving until 1950.  The aircraft next served in the Belgian Air Force for two years.  In 1952 she went to the French Air Force, serving two years in Vietnam, as well as in India, Algeria, Morocco and the Congo.  In 1967 she was sold to Israel and flew in the Israeli Defense Force for 32 years.  AAM acquired the aircraft in 2000.  In addition to AAM’s popular D-Day Living History Flights, she also performs at regional air shows in classic WWII D-Day markings with the original “D8” code.  One of the last C-47s still in stock military configuration, this aircraft has just over 18,000 hours in the air, one of the world’s lowest flight times ever! 

Photo Captions: (1) Living Historians and participants line up and board AAM’s WWII Douglas C-47 Skytrain troop transport and (2) AAM’s WWII Douglas C-47 in flight over Long Island’s South Shore.

The American Airpower Museum is an aviation museum located on the landmarked former site of Republic Aviation at Republic Airport, Farmingdale, NY.  The Museum maintains a collection of aviation artifacts and an array of operational aircraft spanning the many years of the aircraft factory’s history.  The Museum is a 501 (c) (3) Nonprofit Educational Foundation Chartered by the New York State Board of Regents.

American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport is Long Island’s only flying military aviation museum,

“Where History Flies”

Hangar 3, 1230 New Highway, Farmingdale, NY 11735 – (631) 293-6398

info@americanairpowermuseum.org – www.americanairpowermuseum.org   

@american_airpower_museum