Post-war pioneer

How the DC-4 opened up the nation and more

It was sold overseas in 1969 becoming N1220V at Flying Tiger Line. ERIC ALLEN
B efore World War II, Pan American’s large flying boats, the Boeing 314 Clippers, operated long-range flights – mainly across the North Pacific – to limited Pacific destinations. Services also reached as far south as New Zealand, but not Australia.

The evolution of land-based airliners changed everything. One leader in developments was the Douglas Aircraft Company. Its 42-seat DC-4E (E for experimental), an aircraft with double the DC-3’s capacity, first flew on June 7 1938. The aircraft was complex, uneconomic and prone to maintenance issues. In 1939 it was sold to the Mitsui Trading Company in Japan, in the belief it would go to Greater Japan Air Lines. Subterfuge was revealed with the aircraft secretly handed to the Nakajima Aircraft Company and dismantled at the request of the Japanese Navy. This knowledge was used in the design of the unsuccessful Nakajima G5N1/G5N2 Shinzan four-engined long-range bomber.