Where Is the REAL Douglas DC-3 Now?
Video from the channel Last Hangar about Douglas DC-3, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 11:55. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
The video traces the Eastern Air Lines DC-3 preserved at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, and contrasts it with the fate of the first aircraft in the family.
Historical background
The first Douglas DST, registration X14988, took off from Clover Field (Santa Monica) on December 17, 1935, piloted by Carl A. Cover, and flew with sleeping berths for American Airlines. It was sold to TWA on March 14, 1942, and requisitioned as a C-49E with serial number 42-43619. On October 15, 1942, it crashed about two miles from Chicago, killing all nine people on board. Eastern's DC-3, a daytime seated version, flew more than 56,700 hours. It made its last commercial flight from San Salvador to Miami on October 12, 1952, and the company's president, Eddie Rickenbacker, donated it to the museum.
Key facts
The museum dates its manufacture to 1936, but another source places its delivery to Eastern on December 7, 1937. It carries two 1,200-hp Wright SGR-1820-71 radial engines, has a wingspan of 95 feet and a length of 64 feet 6 inches, and is on display in the America by Air gallery. Production figures vary depending on what is counted. The museum cites more than 13,000 units, plus about 3,000 built under license in Russia and nearly 500 in Japan; a count attributed to Boeing gives 455 DC-3 airliners and 10,174 military transports. The Henry Ford museum preserves another Eastern DC-3, the N21728 from 1939, which also flew for North Central Airlines and had logged almost 85,000 hours when it was donated in 1975. It spent 27 years outdoors, was conserved in 2002, and was moved under cover in 2003.