Great Planes The DC3

Video from the channel Local 6 News about Douglas DC-3, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 56:24. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

A documentary from the "Great Planes" series devoted to the Douglas DC-3 and its military version, the C-47, also known as the Dakota. It traces its origin as a commercial aircraft, its role in the Second World War and its later service in Korea and Vietnam. It opens with the Dakota "Shanghai Lil," restored in 1988 by Australian Airlines in the colours it wore when it began flying for the company in 1946.

Development began in 1932, when TWA asked Douglas for a passenger aircraft superior to the Boeing 247, whose production was committed to United Airlines. Douglas opted for a twin-engined design, even though TWA had requested a trimotor, relying on the new engines from Pratt & Whitney and Wright Aeronautical. Only one DC-1 was built. The DC-2, somewhat longer, entered production and triggered orders from airlines in the United States and Europe. It was followed by the DST, a wider model with berths that first flew on 17 December 1935. Its conventional-cabin version, the DC-3, reached American Airlines in August 1936. The US Army received its first example in 1935. With the war, civilian production stopped and series production of the C-47, with large cargo doors, began.

Nearly 11,000 units were built. In New Guinea, as the "biscuit bomber," it dropped supplies by parachute over the jungle, and also evacuated the wounded with nurses on board. It dropped paratroopers, towed gliders and carried howitzers and Willys jeeps. More than 1,000 C-47s took part on D-Day. In the Soviet Union probably more than 2,000 were built, joined by about 700 from the Lend-Lease programme; Japan also built it. In Vietnam it served in electronic warfare, locating enemy transmitters, in psychological warfare, dropping leaflets, and as a gunship armed with Gatling guns. In 1953 the US Air Force awarded Donald W. Douglas its exceptional service award, and the citation mentioned the DC-3.