Page 1 of 6
History
Early 1935 Douglas was requested by American Airlines to develop a replacement for its Curtiss Condor sleeper transports. Douglas reacted with the Douglas Sleeper Transport, de Douglas DST.
This development of the DC-2 had a 76 wider diameter, had a longer fuselage and a larger wingspan. In November 1935 American Airlines ordered ten examples, but changed the order soon in in eight DST’s and twelve aircraft without beds, these were designated DC-3.
This aircraft proofed to be profitable for the airline companies. Douglas delivered 400 examples before the war.
During the second world war over 10000 examples were built in different military variants, but mainly as C-47.
An overview of this variants can be found here.
The main variants are:
- C-47:
- initial military version of the DC-3 with seats for 27 man. 965 examples built, twelve of which were delivered to the US Navy as R4D-1.
- C-47A:
- C-47 with 24 volt electrical system. 5254 examples built including R4D-5 for the US Navy.
- C-47B:
- C-47 with two Pratt & Whitney R-1830-90 with superchargers and enlarged fuel capacity. 3364 examples built.
| Dimensions: | |||
| Length: | 19,64 m | Wingspan: | 28,95 m |
| Height: | 5,16 m | Wing area: | 91,1 m2 |
| Weights: | |||
| Empty weight: | 7640 kg | Max. start weight: | 11 793 kg |
| Performances: | |||
| Max. speed: | 370 km/hr | Rate of climb: | - m/min |
| Cruising speed: | 298 km/hr | ||
| Range: | 2413 km | Service ceiling: | - m |
| Miscellaneous: | |||
| Engine type: | Twee Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 Twin Wasp rated 1200 hp each | ||
| Crew: | Three | ||
| Armament: | None | ||
Nederlands (nl-NL) 
English (United Kingdom)