C-47H (R4D-5) NASA Gooney Bird ca 1963

NASA Flight Research Center's Douglas R4D-5/C-47H s/n 17136 c/n 12287.

The R4D Skytrain was one of the early workhorses for NACA and NASA at Edwards Air Force Base, California, from 1952 to 1984. Designated the R4D by the U.S. Navy, the aircraft was called the C-47 by the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force and the DC-3 by its builder, Douglas Aircraft. Nearly everyone called it the "Gooney Bird." In 1962, the Department of Defense consolidated the military-service designations and called all of them the C-47. After that date, the R4D at NASA's Flight Research Center (itself redesignated the Dryden Flight Research Center in 1976) was properly called a C-47.
Over the 32 years it was used at Edwards, three different R4D/C-47s were used to shuttle personnel and equipment between NACA/NASA Centers and test locations throughout the country and for other purposes. One purpose was landing on "dry" lakebeds to determine if their surfaces were hard (dry) enough for X-15 emergency landings.