Why the DC-3 Was Too Good to Be the DST and Stay a Sleeper — But a Basler BT-67 Too
Video from the channel Flight Origin about Douglas DC-3, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 12:37. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
The video reviews the history of the Douglas Sleeper Transport (DST), the airliner with berths that Douglas built in 1935 at American Airlines' request. It explains why the daytime seated version, the DC-3, prevailed over the sleeper version even though both shared the same airframe.
Historical context
American Airlines president C. R. Smith and his chief engineer, William Littlewood, were looking for a more comfortable transcontinental aircraft. The DC-2's cabin, 66 inches wide, was too narrow to fit berths. Arthur Raymond, Douglas's chief engineer, backed the idea, and Donald Douglas agreed to build the aircraft on condition that American committed to buying it. The order was for 20 units: eight DSTs and twelve 21-seat DC-3s. The prototype, with a 92-inch cabin, first flew on 17 December 1935 from Clover Field in Santa Monica, with Carl Cover at the controls and Frank Collbohm as co-pilot.
Highlights
The DST carried 14 passengers in berths and had a private forward compartment. The daytime DC-3 carried 21 seated passengers, and later versions approached 28, at the same operating costs. In September 1936, American expanded the service with coast-to-coast berths, with a westbound trip of about 15 hours. By the mid-1940s, about 275 of the 300 airliners in domestic service in the United States were DC-3s or derivatives. The military version, the C-47 Skytrain, exceeded 10,000 units. The video links the idea to the flat beds British Airways introduced in 1995 and 2000, and recalls the turboprop Basler BT-67s still in service.