C-47 “Miss Montana”, Montana’s Airplane

The Museum of Mountain Flying is the honored caretaker of a historic C-47 that was named “Montana’s Airplane” in 2023 by Governor Gianforte. This airplane has a long and storied history in Montana and the Mountain West.

N24320 was built as a C-47 cargo plane in May 1944 as part of the United States war effort. She was born too late to enter World War II, and was placed on military surplus. Bob Johnson from Missoula acquired her in 1946 and put her to work for nearly 30 years flying smokejumpers, backcountry cargo, charter flights, spraying for forest pests, and many other jobs.

In August 1949, twelve smokejumpers and one smoke chaser perished in the Mann Gulch Fire north of Helena, Montana. N24320 is the airplane that dropped the ill-fated jumpers on the fire. N24320 is preserved in the Museum of Mountain Flying as a tribute to those smokejumpers and all smokejumpers who help protect the forests of the United States.

On December 22, 1954, while carrying U.S. service members on a charter flight, N24320 ditched at night in the Monongahela River near Pittsburgh. The plane and all the passengers survived the ditching nearly unharmed, but Captain Harold Poe and 9 passengers drowned while attempting to reach shore. Johnson Flying Service pulled her from the river, repaired her, and flew her for another 20 years.

In the mid-1970s when Johnson Flying Service was sold to Evergreen, N24320 went elsewhere for many years. But in 2001, N24320 was located by Museum founder Dick Komberec, a retired Delta pilot whose early piloting experience included working for Johnson Flying Service. Mr. Komberec spotted N24320 near Memphis, Tennessee during one of his flights to that area. He returned to Missoula, raised the funds to purchase the airplane, then brought her back to Missoula where she belonged.

How Miss Montana Got Her Name

Between 2001 and 2018, N24320 was a source of pride for many museum members who would annually take her to the runway for an engine run-up.

In 2018, the museum learned of the D-Day Squadron, a group of American DC-3s and C-47s who were planning to fly to Normandy in 2019 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. They resolved to completely restore N24320 and join the D-Day Squadron on the historic journey. Before this event, N24320 did not have a name. She was the “Mann Gulch” airplane, and always would be. But to represent Montana on the world stage, she needed to have an appropriate name that would honor the entire state of Montana.

The original “Miss Montana” was the nose art on a B-25 flown by Capt. Malcolm W. Enman, a Drummond, Montana resident who earned the Distinguished Flying Cross with a cluster, the Air Medal with 5 oak leaf clusters, and the Asiatic-Pacific Theater and American Defense ribbons, along with three stars for participation in three major campaigns, the Gilbert, The Marshall and the Caroline Islands. Mac, now deceased, is the father-in-law of the late Dick Komberec and grandfather of Eric Komberec. Dick served as museum president for many years and was succeeded by Eric in 2018. The new name was perfect, a battle-tested name and nose art by a Montana World War II aviator. Mac Enman’s nose art was modified slightly by adding the outline of the state, adding a saucy Vargas girl, and placing smokejumper wings in her hand. It wasn’t long before it seemed it had always been her name.

Miss Montana to Normandy

After nearly a year of complete restoration by an army of 200 volunteers, Miss Montana made the Atlantic crossing and joined the D-Day Squadron for the events in England, France, and Germany. The story of this amazing project has been told in Every Reason to Fail: The Unlikely Story of Miss Montana and the D-Day Squadron, by one of her pilots Bryan Douglass, and the documentary Return to the Big Skies by local filmmaker Eric Ristau. The film and signed copies of the book are available at the Museum. The are also available on Amazon.

The purpose of the Miss Montana to Normandy project was to honor over 57,000 Montanans who served during World War II in all branches of the military and also to honor Montanans who served in the war effort on the home front. Further, we continue to honor all smokejumpers, veterans, and first responders of all kinds.

From 2 to 9 June 2019, Miss Montana joined over twenty five DC-3/C-47’s from all over the world - from Scandinavia, The Netherlands, Hungary, Sweden, England, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, and the group of 15 from the United States. On 5 June 2019, we followed in the footsteps of the Greatest Generation, when over 200 men and women parachutists boarded the aircraft at Duxford, England, to fly across the English Channel and jump into a historic drop D-Day drop zone near Pegasus Bridge. They wore WWII-style Allied uniforms and jumped using military round parachutes, just like 75 years earlier.

Miss Montana and its crew were delighted and honored to take part in this event, honoring those who served in that historic conflict, many of whom made the ultimate sacrifice.