Douglas DC-4

The Douglas DC-4 is a four-engine (piston) propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s in a military role. From 1945, many civil airlines operated it worldwide.

Design and development

After the DC-4E proved to be complicated to maintain and uneconomical, Douglas responded to the Eastern and United requests for a smaller and simpler replacement. Before the definitive DC-4 could enter service, the outbreak of World War II caused production to be channeled to the United States Army Air Forces whose aircraft were designated C-54 Skymaster, with US Navy aircraft designated Douglas R5D. The first, a C-54, flew from Clover Field in Santa Monica, California on 14 February 1942.

The DC-4's tricycle landing gear allowed its fuselage to have a constant cross-section for most of its length, so it could easily be stretched into the later DC-6 and DC-7. 1,163 C-54/R5Ds were built for the United States military between 1942 and January 1946; 79 DC-4s were built postwar.

DC4

DC4 may refer to: