Douglas DC-4 y C-54 Skymaster
Video from the channel Mundo de Aviación about Douglas DC-4, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 9:07. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
A look back at the history of the Douglas DC-4 and its military versions, the C-54 Skymaster and the R5D, from its origins to its derivatives.
Historical context
The 52-seat DC-4E proved inefficient and unreliable for profitable operation. American, Eastern, Pan American, TWA and United requested changes, and Douglas created a smaller, unpressurized aircraft with Pratt & Whitney R-2000 Twin Wasp engines, a single tail fin and tricycle landing gear. After the US entered the war in December 1941, the first 34 aircraft were requisitioned and designated C-54. The Skymaster served in World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and in the Korean War: on 25 June 1950 it suffered the conflict's first air loss, shot down by a North Korean Yak-9. The US Air Force kept it in service until 1972.
Key facts
By January 1946, 1,163 C-54 and R5D aircraft had been built. Afterward, 79 new civilian DC-4s were built, until 9 August 1947, and about 500 military aircraft transferred to civilian service. 380 C-54Ds, 125 C-54Es and 162 C-54Gs were built; 331 went to the Navy and the Marine Corps, and 14 to the Coast Guard. The video gives a range of 5,300 km, a top speed of 450 km/h, a crew of four and capacity for 44 civilian passengers or 50 soldiers. The model gave rise to the DC-6, which flew on 15 February 1946, and the DC-7. It closes with the never-solved disappearance of the Argentine Air Force's TC-48 on a flight from Panama to San Salvador.