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It's Wing Wednesday, and today's plane is the Douglas DC-4! In the late 1930s, Douglas Aircraft received a request from United Air Lines to develop a large-capacity, long-range, pressurized, four-engine airliner. The DC-4E prototype first flew in 1938. It featured a tripletail and a nose wheel, unique to large passenger aircraft of that time. Deemed too complicated and expensive to operate, its design was changed to a smaller, unpressurized airliner with a single tail, which became the DC-4. World War II circumvented the DC-4's civilian use and most were appropriated for use as C-54 Skymaster military transports. After the war, Douglas converted many to airliners and continued production until 1947. Shortly after the war, Pan American World Airways realized the superiority of the DC-4 over the Boeing 314 flying boat and began to operate the airliner on both transpacific and transatlantic routes. With its long range and capacity of up to eighty-six passengers, the airliner was crucial to advancing trans-ocean commercial aviation in the immediate postwar era.
This image was posted on April 07, 2021.
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