{"id":198,"date":"2018-01-31T13:58:01","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T13:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrdouglas.org\/wp\/?page_id=198"},"modified":"2023-05-24T16:09:20","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T16:09:20","slug":"save-a-dc-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mrdouglas.org\/?page_id=198","title":{"rendered":"N129H Historical Significance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Smithsonian Magazine says:<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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How the DC-3 Revolutionized Air Travel<\/h1>\n

Before the legendary aircraft took flight, it took 25 hours to fly from New York to Los Angeles<\/h2>\n
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In late 1938, the revolutionary DC-3 plane departed Newark Airport for Glendale, California. <\/span>(Nigel Cox)<\/span><\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n
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By Kathleen Burke<\/a><\/div>\n
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE |
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On an early evening in late 1938, a gleaming American Airlines DC-3 departed Newark Airport, bound for Glendale, California. The takeoff, wrote a Fortune <\/em>magazine reporter aboard to record the still-novel experience of cross-country air travel, was effortless. \u201cHalfway along the runway,\u201d he recounted, \u201cshe left the ground so smoothly that none of the first fliers in the cabin realized what had happened until they saw the whole field rushing away behind them and the factory lights winking through the Jersey murk ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time the flight crossed over Virginia, passengers had already polished off a dinner of soup, lamb chops, vegetables, salad, ice cream and coffee. After a refueling stop in Nashville, the DC-3 continued west. Beyond Dallas, the journalist added, \u201cvisibility was limited only by the far horizons of the curving earth.\u201d Despite head winds, the plane arrived on schedule at 8:50 a.m. Total time was 18 hours 40 minutes, including several ground stops.<\/p>\n

In 1934, the year before the introduction of the DC-3, a flight from New York to Los Angeles was a grueling ordeal, typically requiring 25 hours, more than one airline, at least two changes of planes and as many as 15 stops or so. Now, a single plane could cross the country, usually stopping only three times to refuel.<\/p>\n

Today, a legendary DC-3 hangs suspended in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The plane, says F. Robert van der Linden, the museum\u2019s curator of aeronautics, \u201cis widely considered to be the first airliner capable of making money just by carrying passengers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Built by Douglas Aircraft, founded in 1921, the DC-3 incorporated breakthroughs developed at Douglas and Boeing\u2014super-charged 1,200-horsepower twin engines, cantilevered metal wings, retractable landing gear.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

But the plane\u2019s primary\u2014and romantic\u2014accomplishment, says Henry M. Holden, author of The Legacy of the DC-3<\/em>, is that it captured America\u2019s imagination. The journey became the destination. And with good reason: Passengers aboard the plane entered a cosseted world inconceivable to today\u2019s beleaguered air traveler. \u201cOnce airborne,\u201d Holden says, \u201cpassengers were offered cocktails, followed by entr\u00e9e choices such as sirloin steak or Long Island duckling, served on Syracuse China with Reed & Barton silverware. At cruising altitude, the captain on occasion would have strolled the aisle and chatted with passengers, who were called \u2018visitors\u2019 or \u2018guests.\u2019\u201d Recall, too, Holden adds, that \u201ctranscontinental sleeper flights featured curtained berths with goose-down comforters and feather mattresses. Breakfast choices might have been pancakes with blueberry syrup and julienne-of-ham omelets.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that heady pre-World War II era when the nation began dreaming of air travel, the runaway appeal of the DC-3, whether fitted with berths or only with seats (like the museums\u2019 plane), convinced Americans to take to the skies in record numbers. In 1940, more than two million Americans made trips by air; cost per mile for the consumer decreased from 5.7 cents in 1935 to .05 cents. (Round-trip, coast-to-coast flights were a pricey $300, the equivalent of $4,918 today, but business customers in particular flocked to take advantage of the time saving.)<\/p>\n

No less iconic a figure than Orville Wright became a booster. In the late 1930s, when TWA opened a route to Dayton, Ohio, the 65-year-old Wright was on hand to witness the arrival of the DC-3 at his hometown airport. \u201cThey tell me that [the plane] is so sound-proof that the passengers can talk to each other without shouting,\u201d Wright told reporter Douglas Ingells that day. \u201cThis is a wonderful improvement. Noise is something that we always knew would have to be eliminated in order to get people to fly. Somehow it is associated with fear.\u201d Wright had only praise for the plane bringing flight to the masses. \u201cThey\u2019ve built everything possible into this machine,\u201d he said, \u201cto make it a safe and stable vehicle of the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wright, however, declined an offer to be taken up for a spin in the DC-3 that day. He didn\u2019t give a reason. Perhaps he simply thought that the plane belonged to the next generation of pilots. Those fliers, of course, would soon take the DC-3 to war as the C-47, modified for cargo and troop transport. On D-Day, paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines were ferried to France aboard the C-47.<\/p>\n

Certainly, everyone who flew the DC-3\u2014which would stop production in 1945 as the next generation of passenger planes came on line\u2014was devoted to the plane for its reliability, even in icing conditions or turbulence. (Today, at least 400 DC-3s are still flying, mainly on cargo runs, all around the world.) \u201cThe sheer strength of the DC-3 is what sets it apart,\u201d says Holden. \u201cAnd it is a forgiving plane, incredibly forgiving of pilot error. At times, you could almost say, she flew herself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/strong>: https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/history\/how-the-dc-3-revolutionized-air-travel-5444300\/#Hos2kC0mMfa9o34H.99<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also read here about our very same Mr. Douglas (N129H) aircraft that is a feature in the book and is pictured here in all it’s glory; once owned by Conrad Hilton and Barron Hilton (Hoteliers) and Donald Douglas the (Inventor) himself.  It was coined “THE FLYING SOPHISTICATE”.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The N129H fixed-wing, propeller-driven Douglas DC-3 airliner revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. Its lasting effect on the airline industry and World War II makes it one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made. It has a cruise speed of 207 mph and range of 1,500 miles. Before WWII, the DC-3 pioneered many air travel routes. It was able to cross the continental United States, making transcontinental flights and worldwide flights possible. It is considered by aviation experts as the first airliner that made a profit by carrying passengers alone.  Civil DC-3 production ended in 1942 with 607 aircraft being produced, according to aviation sources. However, together with its military derivative, the C-47 Skytrain (designated the Dakota in RAF Service), and with Russian- and Japanese-built versions, more than 16,000 were built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By<\/span> Martha Lunken<\/a> August 25, 2010<\/span><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

DC-3, A Real Man’s Airplane<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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DC-3 Flagship Detroit<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bonnie Kratz<\/a><\/p>\n

In the early ’60s, when I went wrong and started hanging out at the aerodrome, common wisdom was that the DC-3, while a grand old airplane, had outlived its usefulness to the military, the airlines and even corporate operators. Its death knell was tolling to signal the time had come to relegate these antiques to the boneyard. Fortunately, before last rites were administered, a slew of “Gooney Birds” escaped from old-airplane homes and, in some configuration or another, are alive and well today.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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So what can I possibly add to the millions of print words, websites, fan clubs and semi-religious cults dedicated to every detail of the airplane’s design, iconic history and idiosyncrasies? When he gets a type rating, every DC-3 driver assumes he’s now an expert and, given the slightest chance, will pontificate on incredibly obscure details of its plumbing, wiring, engine operation and reproductive system. He will, of course, also tell you how to fly one. But I kind of respect that; a hopeful who doesn’t know the “right stuff,” the stories \u2014 like how to start one with an inoperable fuel pump (straddle the cowling and pour a can of avgas in the intake as the engine’s cranking), how to eyeball the tailwheel strut to see if someone has loaded 8,000 pounds instead of 6,000, or what the F-bolt is \u2014 probably won’t pass the check ride.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n\n\n\n

Historical Significance<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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The Smithsonian Magazine says: How the DC-3 Revolutionized Air Travel[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1819,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-198","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrdouglas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrdouglas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrdouglas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrdouglas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrdouglas.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrdouglas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2582,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrdouglas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/198\/revisions\/2582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrdouglas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrdouglas.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}