A Douglas DC-3 shown in flight. *
Photo: Corbis * 1935: The Douglas DC-3 makes its maiden flight at Clover Field in Santa Monica, California. Despite a production history lasting only 11 years, it will become one of the most durable, long-lived and beloved aircraft of all time.
While it may be a legendary plane today, the Douglas Aircraft Company wasn't particularly enthusiastic about getting the DC-3 off the ground. The impetus came from American Airlines, which wanted a plane that could provide sleeper berths for 14 passengers.
Douglas' existing DC-2, while a commercial success, was too small for this purpose, so a larger plane was needed. But it was the middle of the Depression, and Douglas wasn't sure (since traveling by air was still relatively new and the industry relatively small) that a new plane made sense. Eventually, though, a deal was struck.
The first DC-3 flew Dec. 17, 1935, 32 years to the day after the Wright Brothers' historic flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It was a good omen for an extraordinarily good plane. The DC-3 entered commercial service flying coast to coast, with an overnight stop, across the United States.
It was World War II, though, that solidified the DC-3's reputation as a "go anywhere, do anything" aircraft. The DC-3 did yeoman service as an Allied cargo and troop transport. The U.S. Army renamed the plane the C-47, while the Navy called it the R4D, and it was also known popularly as the Dakota and the Gooney Bird. But regardless of the name and despite numerous alterations to accommodate various requirements, these models basically remained Douglas' sturdy DC-3.
It saw service in every Allied theater and was used in every conceivable way: as a troop transport, airborne assault craft, cargo plane. Originally designed with a maximum takeoff weight of 24,000 pounds, it was not unusual for wartime loads to reach 35,000 pounds. The C-47, a bulked-up, heavier version, was more than up to the task.
Following the war, a number of C-47s remained in the military: They formed the backbone of the fleet pressed into service during the Berlin Airlift, and saw action in both Korea and Vietnam -- while others went into storage. But most were reconverted for civilian passenger use and during the late '40s and early '50s DC-3s were in service with most of the world's major airlines.
As larger jet aircraft came into widespread use, the DC-3 was shunted off to shorter, less-traveled routes and eventually passed from the main commercial aviation scene. DC-3 production ended in 1946 (the last plane being delivered to Belgium's Sabena Airlines), but they were built to last, and they did. DC-3s found new lives in the corporate, scientific and forestry worlds, as freight transports, museum pieces and skydiving planes.
A few of them even remained in passenger service, flying short-haul routes into the late 1990s. By that time some commercial jets like the Boeing 777 had twice the wingspan of the DC-3's once-hefty 95 feet.
(Source: Various)
