Dc 3 Transport Plane example essay topic

Donald Willis Douglas was born in Brooklyn, New York on April 6, 1892. As a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Douglas had high hopes. With only a few hundred dollars in his pocket Douglas set out to make his business. Douglas's first big order came when David R. Davis gave him 40,000 to make a plan that would take him coast-to-coast. Donald Willis Douglas began his company on July 22, 1920 building passenger transports and bombers in Santa Monica, California. By 1928, which was only eight years after the company had started; it was already worth an estimated $25 million dollars.

Donald Douglas Sr. once said "Scientist and mechanic alike have a heritage and tradition with which there is no compromise. Together they work; together they plan ahead and look ahead". Boeing had produced the 247 which was the leading transporter plane at the time and was only being used by United Airlines. This put the pressure on the other Airliners to develop a plane that could out perform the Boeing 247. Donald Willis Douglas, in 1933, came back with the DC-1. The next year producing the DC-2, and then in 1936 coming out with the DC-3.

Having the DC-3 put American Airlines on top. In an article written in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum web-site, it reads, "When United airlines, with it's Boeing 247's, saw the Douglas plane was outclassing its own service, the company purchased ten Dots and five DC-3's, and began flights on January 1, 1937. In July of that same year United introduced sleeper service between New York and California". The DC-3 like the DC-1 and the DC-2 that came before it, was different in that when the president of American Airlines, Cyrus Rowlett Smith, called and talked to Douglas he asked for a larger version of the DC-2 so that American Airlines could have a transcontinental "sleeper" service. Making it's madden voyage on December 17th, 1935, the Douglas Commercial Three (DC-3) was well recognized as one of the best and most successful aircraft ever built for it's time.

Evolving from the earlier DC-2 made by Douglas, the DC-3 had a much wider cabin to fly passengers and their cargo. The plane became so loved by the pilots that took them up, that they soon came up with the phrase, "The only replacement for a Gooney Bird is another Gooney Bird."Since the beginning of air travel, comfort has been one of the most important weapons in airline competition. In the 1930's, lightweight wicker seats gave way to padded cushions. Airlines discovered that soothing colors like blue or grey reduced airsickness, particularly in the rear seats of planes like the Douglas DC-3, which tended to sway from side to side at the tail during turbulence. By the 1940's, the airliners and manufactures had begun the practice of wooing premium passengers with amenities such as seats that could be made into beds" (Lunsford pg. B. 1). Page 2 The DC-3 had some pretty impressive specifications for it's time.

With a wing span of: 95 feet, a length of 64 feet 6 in. a height of 16 feet 11 in, and a weight of 25,200 lb. gross, the Douglas Commercial Three has the ability to carry 5,000 pounds of cargo or 24 passengers a distance 1,200 miles. This range nearly doubled the range of the Boeing 247. Traveling at a cruise speed of 170 MPH The DC-3's max gross takeoff weight was 28,000 lb. The DC-3's power came from two 1,200- horsepower Wright Cyclone radial engines.

"Streamlining and 'cleaning up' the airplane to attain greater speed was rapidly becoming a science. The faster the plane flew, the more drag was created by even the smallest protuberance, and more power was required to overcome this speed-killing resistance. Rivets, which held the metal skin to the basic frame, were the greatest offender... ". (Rolfe p. 181). In 1932 when the flush rivet was introduced into the airline industry the DC-3 took advantage of it in making it one of the more effective metal planes.

Arthur Raymond the Designer of the DC-3 improved upon the standard features of planes before the DC-3, enhancing the wing flaps, flush riveting, variable pitch propellers and the retractable landing gear. The interior of the plane was very comfortable at the time as well with the ability to sleep 14 passengers, in a comfortable environment which had sound-absorbing fabric and engines that were mounted with insulators that were rubber to reduce the noise. The DC-3 was so popular among the airliners that between the years of 1938 and 1939 the DC-3 carried between 90-95 percent of all commercial traffic in the world leaving no space for any other aircraft in the industry for becoming more valuable an asset as was the DC-3. The DC-3 transport plane was such a demand that, "Eight Hundred commercial DC-3's were built before 1940; more than 10,000 were produced for war duty; about 2000 more were manufactured in Russia", (Morgan 57).

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum web site states, "KLM was the first European airline to own and operate DC-3's, in 1936, followed by companies in Sweden, Switzerland, France, Belgium, and elsewhere. By 1938 DC-3's were flown by thirty foreign airlines". The DC-3 was not only recognized for its great advances in the airline industries, but during many wars as well. The DC-3 was widely used for many applications. On the Airline History Museum site it stated, "About sixty percent of all DC-3 aircraft went to war in WWII as transports".

It was used to carry all kinds of cargo and to drop paratroops, during the Vietnam War the DC-3 was used as a gun ship which was heavily armed. Other uses for the plane included dropping skydivers, equipment, food, life rafts, and supplies to those in need. The DC-3 also had applications in the aid of forest fires and crop dusting. the C-47 as it was called by the military, went on to become what General Dwight D. Eisenhower said in WWII one of the four most important tools of the war. The DC-3 was said to have always lived up to the task that was required of it during the war, weather it was to carry supplies, or paratroops the DC-3 lived up to it's name. It had many names at that given the military titles C-47, C-53, C-117, and the R 4 D. With the start of WWII the production of the DC-3 increased from 455 in 1941 to over doubling in 1946 to 10,900 planes, showing a large demand for a plane that was as versatile as the DC-3. Page 3 Unlike all other aircraft during it's time that were being used for the same purpose, the DC-3 was able to out perform even the best.

In 1934 President Franklin D. Roosevelt stopped all government air mail contracts because it was costing too much to move too little across the states. Jack Frye from TWA and the new DC-3 set out on a 13 hour 4 minute trip across the country loaded with passengers and mail, setting a new record and proving that the DC-3 was far more superior of any of the other aircraft at the time. Because of the DC-3's ability to fly with such speeds and with the efficiency that it had, it was the only plane that was able to make a profit solely from the transportation of passengers. Other Airliners seeing this decided to make adjustments to their fleet of planes and ordered out planes from Donald Douglas, so that they could stay in the game.

In the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum web-site, it says, "The impact of the DC-3 was felt the world over. In July 1936 President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented Donald W. Douglas, head of Douglas Aircraft, with the Collier Trophy. Recognizing the DC-3 as the outstanding twin-engined commercial plane,' the citation read, 'this airplane, by reason of its high speed, economy, and quiet passenger comfort, has been generally adopted by transport lines throughout the United States. Its merit has been further recognized by its adoption aboard and its influence on foreign design is already apparent". Getting this award showed that the DC-3 was no ordinary plane, but was a very important advancement in all airplanes, as well as a large advancement in the airplane industry. The Douglas Aircraft Company stopped production of the DC-3 in 1944, by this time over 10,000 DC-3's had been made.

The DC-3 was such a hit that even though production stopped in 1944, they still can be seen being used today. The DC-3 was given many names in the time that it was in service, other than the military titles the DC-3 was called the "Sky trooper,"Doug,"Skytrain", and the well known "Gooney Bird", by many pilots during WWII. The Airliners also had a name for this big hunk of metal which they called "The Three". The DC-3 will live on in the hearts and the minds of all those who flew this plane, and knew how great of a plane it really was and still is. From Donald Willis Douglas's birth in 1892 to his death on February 1st 1981, Donald had lived a very successful life. Building not only a plane, but also a dream of his that not only would be remembered by many, but that would be shared by many as well.

You can see that first of all the DC-3 was far ahead of its time. Making advancements in many areas the DC-3 quickly became the most popular plane at the time, being used by not only US airliners, but airliners around the world. The DC-3 had been recognized by the president at the time and was also recognized by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would later become the president of the United States.

Bibliography

Airline History Museum at Kansas City. Save A Connie, Inc. Copyright 2003.
web Morgan, Len. Airliners of the World. Arco Publishing Company, Inc. New York, N.Y. Copyright 1966.
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright 1998-2000.
web Rolfe, Douglas. Airplanes of the World. Street and Smith Publications, Inc. New York, N.Y. Copyright 1961.