Douglas DC-4
| Douglas DC-4 | |
|---|---|
 Pacific Western Airlines DC-4 , 1959 |
|
| Type: | Passenger and transport aircraft |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
June 7, 1938 (DC-4E); |
| Commissioning: |
1942 |
| Production time: |
1942-1947 |
| Number of pieces: |
79 civilian DC-4s |
The Douglas DC-4 is a four-engine American airliner with piston motor -drive the Douglas Aircraft Company . The machine began its career as a military transport aircraft and was used in civil aviation around the world after World War II . The DC-6 and DC-7 models were later derived from the DC-4 .
The military version of the DC-4 was called the C-54 Skymaster by the USAF and R5D by the US Navy .
history
DC-4E
The first aircraft with the designation DC-4 appeared in 1938 after 18 months of construction as a prototype in the form of the very large Douglas DC-4E. Their maiden flight took place on June 7th of the same year. The flight tests did not reveal any particular problems. The machine initially met with a certain amount of interest, but was soon rejected as too big for our own needs. At the end of 1939, the only DC-4E ever built was sold to Japan to the Japan Airways Company , which after only one flight gave it to the Japanese Navy as a model for an extremely heavy long-range bomber.
DC-4
After lengthy discussions with various airlines, Douglas submitted the draft of a new, comparatively large four-engine airliner in 1939, which, in contrast to the earlier prototype DC-4E, was dimensioned according to their wishes. The first flight of the now actual DC-4 on February 14, 1942 took place during the Second World War , however, with a military registration number. Nevertheless, the airlines ordered 61 pieces off the drawing board. In the following years, 1,163 copies built of the aircraft acquired an excellent reputation as a reliable and resilient military transport aircraft . The DC-4 or its military version, the Douglas C-54 Skymaster , was also used as a cherry bomber during the Berlin Airlift in 1948/49. The machine does not have a pressurized cabin .
After the end of the war, Douglas built 79 civilian DC-4s, designed for up to 56 passengers, which, together with around 250 demilitarized machines of the same type (C-54), were used by airlines around the world. The first civilly manufactured aircraft were delivered to the US American Western Airlines and the Belgian Sabena on January 18, 1946 . Because Western Airlines put its aircraft into service shortly afterwards, it is considered the first operator of this type of aircraft. A total of 1,244 units of the DC-4 and C-54 were produced.
The DC-4 was also used in the first post-war years for overseas traffic - especially over the North Atlantic - and replaced the uneconomical flying boats there. Because of the weak engines, the lack of a pressurized cabin and the low tank capacity, however, more stopovers were necessary. For example, a flight between Europe and the USA between the then usual springboard airports Shannon in Ireland and Gander on Newfoundland also had to be refueled on Iceland and Greenland . Only the improved version DC-4A, built from 1945 on, had a larger tank capacity and could skip the northern airports under normal weather conditions. Nevertheless, the DC-4 on these routes was soon replaced by the more powerful, faster and pressurized Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-6 . From then on, the DC-4 was mainly used in medium and short-haul traffic, often with denser seating for up to 80 passengers. Pan Am used them in Berlin traffic until the 1960s.
The four-engine Douglas in its various construction stages DC-4 , DC-6 and DC-7 was one of the most popular aircraft types of the 1940s and 1950s. The stages of her career are not dissimilar to those of her main competitor, the Lockheed Constellation: Developed in the early 1940s, then initially tested in war operations, finally one of the main pillars of continental and intercontinental air traffic in increasingly powerful versions . With the advent of jet aircraft, however, the career of the four-engine Douglas quickly came to an end in the late 1950s.
Modifications
- Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvair : Combined cargo and passenger aircraft for car transport with a cockpit similar to the Boeing 747 and a large bow loading door; 21 pieces converted from DC-4 and C-54
- Canadair North Star : Canadair developed a combination of the DC-4 and the Douglas DC-6 with Rolls-Royce-Merlin engines; 71 newly built, 51 of them with pressurized cabins
Incidents
From the commissioning in 1943 to February 2019, including military operators, there were 371 total losses of this type of aircraft, of which 318 were accidents. A total of 3505 people were killed.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Douglas DC-4-1009 data |
|---|---|
| crew | 2 pilots, 1 on-board mechanic, 2 flight attendants, additional on long-haul routes 1 radio operator, 1 navigator |
| length | 28.60 m |
| span | 35.81 m |
| height | 8.38 m |
| Wing area | 135.63 m² |
| Empty mass | 19,640 kg |
| Max. Takeoff mass | 33,112 kg |
| drive | four radial engines Pratt & Whitney R-2000 -2SD-13G Twin Wasp (each 1,081 kW / 1,450 WPS) |
| Top speed | 451 km / h at an altitude of 4,265 m |
| Cruising speed | 365 km / h at an altitude of 3,050 m |
| Service ceiling | 6,800 m |
| normal range | 4,023 km with a 5,189 kg payload |
Trivia
- The DC-4 was a popular aircraft in the disaster film of the fifties and sixties: both in the German film “ Flug in Fahrt ” and in the American film “ Es wird immer wieder Tag ” a DC-4 is the affected aircraft that ultimately landed happily can be.
Web links
- History of the DC-4 / C-54 / R5D (English)
- Technical specifications
- Image of the machine
- More photos
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Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Berry, Tom Dunstall, Michael Ford, John A. Whittle: The Douglas DC-4. Air-Britain (Historians), Hutton, Brentwood 1967, p. 23.
- ^ Tony Eastwood, John Roach: Piston Engine Airliner Production List. The Aviation Hobby Shop, West Drayton 1996, ISBN 0-907178-61-8 , p. 306.
- ^ Delta Flight Museum, Western Airlines, 1940's
- ^ Accident statistics Douglas DC-4 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 1, 2019.