Douglas DC-6 DC-6B

The DC-6B is the DC-6A without cargo doors: the same stretched fuselage, but with passenger doors and a lighter floor. That simplification, combined with Double Wasp engines driving Hamilton Standard 43E60 constant-speed reversing propellers, earned it a reputation no other version matched: ruggedness, reliability, economical operation and good handling made it, for many, the definitive piston-engined airliner.

It was offered in two versions. The domestic DC-6B-1198A seated 60 to 89 with 2,400 hp R-2800-CB16 engines; the trans-ocean DC-6B-1225A seated 42 to 89, raised fuel capacity to 5,512 US gallons (20,870 L), lifted take-off weight to 107,000 lb (49,000 kg) and fitted 2,500 hp (1,900 kW) R-2800-CB17 engines.

Pan Am launched transatlantic tourist-class flights with DC-6Bs in 1952, the first able to gross 107,000 lb thanks to CB-17 engines running on 108/135 octane fuel. Several European airlines followed. The DC-6B and DC-6C could often fly nonstop from the eastern United States to Europe, but westbound, into the prevailing winds, they had to refuel at Goose Bay, Labrador, or Gander, Newfoundland.

Its figures: 32.2 m long, 35.8 m in span, 25,110 kg empty, 48,534 kg maximum take-off weight, 507 km/h cruise, a 7,620 m ceiling and up to 4,100 nautical miles (7,593 km) with maximum fuel. A DC-6B cost around £500,000 in 1958 and about £227,000 second-hand in 1960. Between 1977 and 1990, five yellow-painted DC-6Bs flew in France as water bombers for the Sécurité Civile, registered F-ZBAC, F-ZBAD, F-ZBAE, F-ZBAP and F-ZBBU.