DC-3
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- Also called:
- Douglas DC-3, Skytrain, C-47 (U.S. Army), R4D (U.S. Navy), or Dakota (Royal Air Force)
- Key People:
- Donald Douglas
DC-3, transport aircraft, the world’s first successful commercial airliner, readily adapted to military use during World War II. The DC-3, first flown in 1935, was a low-wing twin-engine monoplane that in various conformations could seat 21 or 28 passengers or carry 6,000 pounds (2,725 kg) of cargo. It was over 64 feet (19.5 metres) long, with a wingspan of 95 feet (29 metres). It was manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, Inc.
The DC-3 served, indeed dominated, the infant airline business from its first appearance. In the mid-1940s all but 25 of the 300 airline planes operating in the United States were DC-3s. Its wartime adaptations were simple and effective. It was used to transport passengers (28), fully armed paratroopers (28), wounded troops (18 stretchers and a medical crew of three), military cargo (e.g., two light trucks), and anything else that could fit through its cargo doors and weighed not much more than three tons. A version that carried only troops was called the C-53. The airplane was also used to tow gliders and was even converted to an efficient, high-speed glider by simply removing its engines (and fairing over their empty cowls) and other nonessential weight. As a glider, it could carry 40 fully armed troops at a top towing speed of 290 miles per hour (464 km per hour)—90 mph faster than any previous transport glider and 26 percent faster than its own top speed as a transport airplane.
In civilian service, the DC-3 was operated by a two-man crew, usually with a cabin attendant. The military version used larger engines and a flight crew of three. The DC-3’s main landing gear was retractable, its steerable tail-wheel was not.
Pilots, both military and civilian, loved the DC-3. It took off easily, cruised comfortably at 185 mph at 10,000 feet, and had a ceiling of 23,200 feet and a low stalling speed (67 mph). Pilots said it landed itself, and it had a cruising range of 1,500–2,100 miles. When production of the DC-3 ended in 1945, more than 13,000 of them had been built. The DC-3’s ease of handling and maintenance, its facility at taking off and landing on short runways, and its remarkable reliability combined to keep it flying in many regions of the world into the 21st century.