Douglas DC-4 variant
Douglas DC-4 C-54
First production version, adapted from the civil DC-4 with four auxiliary cabin tanks; 24 built.
- February 14, 1942
- First flight
- 24
- Units built
- 26
- Passengers
History
The DC-4 called up
With the United States entering the Second World War, in December 1941 the Army Air Forces took over the airlines' provisional orders and gave them the designation C-54 Skymaster. The first flew from Clover Field, Santa Monica, California, on 14 February 1942.
To meet military requirements the first civil production aircraft were given four auxiliary fuel tanks in the main cabin, cutting seating to 26. Twenty-four of this first version were built. The C-54 was one of the most widely used long-range transports of the US armed forces in the war: it carried Franklin D. Roosevelt, Douglas MacArthur and Winston Churchill, the American delegates to the Casablanca Conference, and served with the RAF, the French Air Force and the armed forces of at least twelve other nations.