MURPHY'S LAW: USN C-47 Returns May 20, 2021: The U.S. Navy recently put a rebuilt C-47 twin-engine transport into service as a range support aircraft for its ATR (Atlantic Test Range). The navy needed a larger range support aircraft so that more radar and tracking equipment could be carried and track multiple jets and missiles they had in the air at once. The old ATR was a King Air, twin-engine commercial turboprop transport introduced in the 1969s, three decades after the DC-3, an aircraft that was renamed the C-47 during World War II. A new King Air, or similar but larger aircraft, would not only cost a lot more than the rebuilt (as a BT-67) C-47 but would take longer to obtain.