NEW DC-3 REVIEW
Video from the channel Flight Origin about Douglas DC-3, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 11:28. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
Documentary on why the DC-3's airframe, designed in the 1930s, never got a true successor and still flies today as the Basler BT-67 in the Canadian Arctic and in Antarctica.
Historical background
In 1934, Cyrus R. Smith, president of American Airlines, asked Douglas for a wider version of the DC-2, with sleeping berths, to replace the Curtiss Condor biplanes. Douglas agreed once American committed to buying 20 aircraft. Arthur E. Raymond's team created the Douglas Sleeper Transport, with 14 berths or 21 seats, which first flew on December 17, 1935, from Clover Field in Santa Monica, piloted by Carl Cover. It entered service on June 26, 1936. Civilian production ended in early 1943 with 607 aircraft; military versions exceeded 10,000 units, and the family, including the Soviet Li-2 and the Japanese L2D, reached 16,079. War surplus crashed prices and left the 1949 Super DC-3 without buyers, of which only five were built. Turboprop conversions followed: the Armstrong Siddeley Mamba testbed, Jack Conroy's Dart-powered conversions and his Tri Turbo 3, as well as those by Greenwich Aircraft and BSAS.
Key facts
Warren Basler founded Basler Turbo Conversions in 1990. The BT-67 retains around 10% of the original metal, carries PT6A-67R engines with five-blade propellers and a 40-inch fuselage stretch section, and is certified with zero hours. It offers 43% more payload and exceeds 200 knots cruise, though it burns more fuel and its range with the standard tank drops to about 950 nautical miles. In 2013, a conversion cost around $4 million.