In Australian Service, the DC-3

Australian civil aviation development owes a huge debt to the DC-3 for its magnificent contribution over the last 48 years. It was in the post war era that the DC-3 came into its own on the civil side. Used in considerable numbers by the major airlines and smaller operators the DC-3 became synonymous for ‘airliner’ to the air traveller.

Eventually it was replaced by more modern aircraft but even in the 1950s was still in widespread use. In 1955 there were 887 aircraft on the Australian Civil Aircraft Register. Of these 107 were Douglas products comprising 1 DC-2, 19 DC-4s, 2 DC-6s, 2 DC-6B and a sizeable 83 DC-3s. The DC-3s were mainly used by the major airlines and the split up of ownership in 1955 was as follows.

It was the receipt of the Fokker Friendship from 1959 onwards which was to have the greatest impact on the DC-3. In 1959 there were still 72 DC-3s on the Civil Register. However as the intrastate airlines took delivery of their Friendships the writing was on the wall for the DC-3. Although unquestionably a fine aircraft it inevitably gave way to modern technology as the DC-3 was no match for the superior speed, operating efficiency and comfort of the more modern aircraft. By 1970 there were 50 DC- 3s in service, mainly in charter use and this number gradually declined to the 11 still in use in 1985.

Although the DC-3 is now 50 years old, its roots can naturally be traced further back. In the early 1930s, tri-motor aircraft were in vogue, partly because of market demands and also because the power of aircraft engines then available dictated that three engines be fitted to provide adequate safety margins should an engine fail. Typical of these and the most widely used was the Ford Tri-Motor, produced in two versions. The Model 4-AT was powered by three Wright Whirlwinds of 220 hp each and 78 were produced. The later 5-AT version had the more powerful 425 hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp and production ran to 118 aircraft. Gross weight was 13,500 lb and up to 16 passengers could be carried at a 110 mph cruising speed. As impressive as these performance figures were in the context of the early 1930s, the airlines felt that something better was called for.

The first aircraft to take advantage of new developments was the all-metal cantilever monoplane the Boeing 247. Other refinements included a retractable undercarriage and improved flight systems and engine nacelles. An order for 60 of the Boeings from United prompted both American Airlines and Transcontinental and Western Air to take steps to protect their competitive positions.

On August 1932, senior TWA executive Jack Frye approached several manufacturers including Douglas with a specification for a three-engined transport. For Douglas, this was a turning point as they were anxious to break into the commercial market. The design team headed by famous Douglas designer James ‘Dutch’ Kindelberger set about their task and design work began on 20 September 1932. The aircraft they were working on was the DC- 1, the basic design from which the DC-3 was eventually to evolve, and the forerunner of the whole illustrious Douglas Commercial family. The availability of more powerful engines prompted Douglas to vary the TWA proposal with an aircraft powered by two engines instead of three. Just ten days after the TWA specifications had been received Douglas were able to hand TWA the details of what they had in mind. TWA were impressed with the aircraft on offer and on 20 September a contract was signed to purchase the first aircraft for $125,000 with options to acquire up to 60 additional aircraft at a cost of $58,000 per aircraft minus engines.

Construction of the DC-1 began and nine months later on 1 July 1933 at Clover Field, Santa Monica, Carl Cover and Fred Herman took it up on its maiden flight. What should have hopefully been a most happy event nearly ended in disaster when on each attempt to put the DC-1 into a climb a serious loss of power was experienced. The aircraft landed safely and the problem was traced to the arrangement of the carburettor floats in the 690 hp Wright Cyclones, a situation which was soon remedied. TWA were sufficiently impressed with the subsequent flight trials to initially order 20 production aircraft known as the DC-2, which was two feet longer than the DC-1 to increase accommodation.

One interesting inclusion in the TWA specification was that the aircraft had to be able to take off on one engine fully loaded from any airport served by it. As their network included Albuquerque, New Mexico at a 4,954 ft altitude and blessed with summer temperatures regularly over 30°C, this seemed a formidable criteria to meet. However, Douglas demonstrated the ability of their aircraft to cope with this testing requirement when on 4 September 1933, the DC-1 took off from Winslow, Arizona on the 280-mile flight to Albuquerque. During take-off from Winslow one engine was shut down, the aircraft climbed from 4,500 ft to its 8,000 cruise altitude and completed the flight on one engine. This was certainly an impressive way of proving the viability of a two engined configuration. The sole DC-1 continued flying for several years though was eventually damaged beyond repair in a takeoff accident from Malaga, Spain during December 1940.

For Douglas, the DC-2 was an outstanding success. It enabled them to establish themselves in the civil sphere and laid the foundations for the other successes which were to follow. The DC-2 flew on many trail-blazing flights and participated in some memorable events, the pinnacle of which was its entry in the 1934 MacRobertson Race. In this historic aviation classic, the KLM DC-2 PH-AJU won the transport section and came a credible second behind the DH Comet in the overall race. When production ceased in 1939 a total of 130 DC-2s had been built in addition to 62 military derivatives and a further five aircraft built by Nakajima in Japan during 1936-37.

The DC-2 provided the basis from which the incomparable DC- 3 was to develop. During 1935 the President of American Airlines, Cyrus Rowlett Smith approached Douglas to ascertain whether they could build a new sleeper transport aircraft to replace their Curtiss Condor biplanes. The Curtiss Condor 32 was a twin-engined biplane powered by Wright Cyclones and had a gross weight of 17,500 lb, span of 82 ft and length of 49 ft. It had been introduced into service on 5 May 1934 and accommodated 14 passengers on a transcontinental service flying a southern route Boston/Dallas/Los Angeles. Douglas were then busy with DC-2 production and were initially reluctant to undertake another project. However the likelihood of an order for 20 aircraft of the new type from American provided the necessary stimulus. At first it had been anticipated that there would be an 85% commonality of parts between the DC-2 and the new aircraft to be known as the Douglas Sleeper Transport (DST), largely based on the OC-2. However by the time the design work had been completed the DST, although superficially similar to the DC-2, was in fact quite different and could only utilise about 10% of the DC-2’s components. The new design was offered in two versions the DST or the DC-3 for day use. Amongst the main changes over the DC-2 was the increase in width of the fuselage by 2′ 6″ to 7′ 8″ with a 6′ 6″ height to accept the sleeper berths of the DST. The 920 hp Wright GR-1829-G5 Cyclones gave a 184 mph cruising speed at 10,000 ft over a 1 , 100-mile range. Accommodation was provided for 16 passengers in the DST and 21 in the DC-3. A larger tail unit and increased wing span were other important changes.

American Airlines placed an order for 10 of the new aircraft on 8 July 1935 at a unit price of $79,500 per aircraft which with spares came to a total of $1. 7M. Prior to the first flight this was increased to 8 DSTs and 12 DC-3s with a further option on 20 aircraft. Just over five months from the receipt of the first order, the first DST was flown by Carl Cover at Santa Monica on 17 December. Douglas would probably have been staggered had they known what a classic had been created and what lay ahead. It entered service on 25 June 1936 and the most famous transport aircraft of all time had started to earn revenue. That so many are still in service 50 years later is quite incredible. In fact the number in service 50 years later probably exceeds Douglas’ expectations of the total sales to be made based on the market that existed in 1935. Authoritative estimates suggest that around 350 are still in routine commercial service and as many as 400 more in military service worldwide.

The orders flowed in and by the end of 1939 over 200 had been delivered. As important as the civil orders were it was the needs of the military which were to catapult the DC-3 and its military derivatives into the record books. A variety of designations were applied to the military version mostly within the C-47/C-53 range, by far the most numerous were the C-47 variants. By the time US production ceased towards the end of 1945, a total of 10,655 civil and military aircraft had been delivered. On top of this, 487 Japanese versions were ironically produced and a further 2,000 plus were built in Russia which took the grand total to over 13,000 aircraft, a truly remarkable achievement.

Australia’s long association with the DC-3 began in 1937 when VH-UZJ ‘Kyilla’ was delivered to Airlines of Australia at Essendon on 9 September. Airlines of Australia was one of the airlines which were amalgamated to form Australian National Airways the previous year and continued to operate under its own name until mid-1942. A few weeks later VH-UZK ‘Kurana’ was handed over to Australian National Airways on 25 October and these aircraft spearheaded DC-3 operations until two additional aircraft were delivered in 1938. The cost of a new technology trunk route airliner in 1937 makes an awesome comparison with today’s costs when one considers that the total price of Kurana was £32,400 made up as follows:

Naturally cost comparisons with our current generation of airliners are quite irrelevant when the vastly superior productivity, technology and the ravages of inflation are taken into account. Nevertheless, those purchase prices of nearly 50 years ago do make an interesting comparison.

During November a series of flights were made by VH-UZJ to all the capital cities to show the flag as a prelude to regular services which commenced the following month. The DC-3s in company with their DC-2s gave ANA significantly increased capacity and flexibility, particularly during the usual seasonal increase in traffic experienced during the peak Christmas travel period. ‘Kyilla’ for example maintained two return services a day between Sydney and Brisbane while ‘Kurana’ operated on routes between Melbourne and Tasmania. The remaining two DC-3s of the four ordered by ANA were delivered late in 1938. These were VH-ABR ‘Kanana’ on 17 October and VH-ACB ‘Warana’ on 1 November. This further lift in capacity enabled ANA to carry out an interesting charter flight prior to the 1938 Christmas rush. On 23 November ‘Kurana’ left Essendon for Calcutta on charter to Qantas. An increase in mail on the Empire Air Route dictated the need for some ·assistance. Some weeks later ‘Kurana’ arrived back in Melbourne on 19 December to resume her usual duties.

The four DC-3s settled down to further consolidate their position in the ANA fleet but the declaration of war on 3 September was to abruptly alter this. Not long after, on 11 September they were impressed into the RAAF and VH-UZJ, VH-UZK, VH-ABR and VH-ACB became A30-1, A30-2, A30-3, and A30-4 respectively. These aircraft formed No. 8 Squadron based at Canberra and were used on reconnaissance duties. Captain Clarence Scott of ANA under his new guise of Squadron Leader Scott was placed in charge and the DC-3s performed a useful stop-gap role until more suitable aircraft could be obtained. To improve the view for observers, side windows could be removed and rubber rafts and machine guns were carried. Although much of this patrol work was around Gabo Island they ventured much further afield. One flight was made from Wilson’s Promontory to Brisbane while others ranged far out into the Tasman, to Albany in Western Australia and to an area 500 miles off the northwest coast of Western Australia. During these flights of up to 1 O hours duration, they kept a lookout for submarines and located and reported numerous oil streaks and floating timber. Some extremely long-distance flights were carried out including Perth to Brisbane non-stop. The DC-3s were returned to ANA between February and June 1940 as the RAAF took delivery of more Lockheed Hudsons to assume the maritime patrol role.

Towards the end of 1941 the ANA DC-3s again found themselves called on to assist the military, this time it was to aid in the evacuation of civilians from New Guinea. Following the attack on Pearl Harbour and the rapid increase in hostilities in the Pacific, the decision was made to evacuate women and children from New Guinea to Australia. Three flights a day were made from Cairns to Port Moresby, a distance of 550 miles starting on 20 December and on 28 December evacuation flights were extended to Rabaul. To minimise the risk of attack the DC-3s spent only five minutes on the ground at Rabaul before returning to Port Moresby. To safeguard their return a fighter escort was provided for the first 100 miles out from Rabaul. Sometimes as many as 52 passengers were carried and when the final tally was taken 922 people had been evacuated to Australia.

As the tempo of military activity to the north of Australia intensified ANA’s DC-3s found themselves cast in the role of carriers of urgently needed war material and troops to the area. Departing from Cairns on 17 February 1942 they flew bombs and dismantled anti-aircraft guns to Port Moresby. On their return flight to Townsville, they then embarked troops and flew them to Port Moresby. This latter flight was 700 miles over water and the aircraft were unarmed and unprotected. The schedule was demanding on both aircraft and crews. For example, a DC-3 left Townsville at 2. 00 am and on arrival at Port Moresby at 6. 30 am would take on wounded personnel and set off for Townsville where it would land by midday. A second round trip left Townsville at 2. 00 pm and eventually arrived back at midnight.

Sometimes the flights were so important and dangerous that a fighter escort was provided. On 21 May 1942 ‘Kyilla’ and ‘Kurana’ flew from Brisbane to Port Moresby via Townsville, Coen and Horn Island. The following day in the company of three USAAF C-53s, they left Port Moresby for Wau carrying commandos with their equipment. For protection, they had 13 Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawks as a fighter escort. However due to bad weather, the mission was terminated and they returned to Townsville. They had better luck the following day and were able to reach Wau. Three flights were made that day involving the transportation of nearly 300 men and the aircraft finally arrived back in Brisbane on 26 May, their task completed.

With Australia now heavily involved in the war effort the number of DC-3s and their military versions in operation in Australia rapidly increased. The influx of US forces brought with them numerous C-47s and C-53s. Operated by the Allied Directorate of Air Transport these aircraft used varied call signs such as VH-CBA, VH-CXA for example. These were call signs only and the aircraft did not appear on the Civil Register although some of them did eventually pass to Australian ownership. The RAAF also became a major operator of the type and initially operated some USAAF C-53s on loan. After they were returned, delivery was taken of a variety of versions such as the C-47A, C-47B etc. In all 124 aircraft were acquired under the Lend-Lease scheme and were allocated RAAF serials from A65-1 to A65-124.

During July 1944 the Commonwealth Government obtained 12 aircraft and these eventually went to the airlines and formed an important part of the post-war DC-3 fleet in Australia. They were registered VH-AEOV, VH-AEX/Z and VH-AFA and most went to TAA. After the war ended the DC-3 gradually became the mainstay of civil airline operations until more modern, comfortable aircraft such as the Convair 240 were introduced into service. With the arrival of the Viscount and DC-6 in the 1950s the pre-eminent position of the DC-3 was toppled and they began to be used in more secondary roles. Yet for the first 15 years of their operations in Australia they were undisputed leader of the airways.

In the July edition, we will examine the role of the DC-3 in post-war Australian aviation.