Grand Old Lady: Story Of The DC-3

By Lt.-Col. Carroll V. Glines and Lt.-Col. Wendell F. Moseley

This is a most excellent chronological history of the iconic DC-3 (Douglas Commercial aircraft, third model), also known as the C-47 (Cargo) in the US Army Air Forces and R4D in the US Navy, Good Old Gooney Bird, Dear old Dakota, and Grand Old Lady. She was noisy, drafty, easy to fly and utterly dependable. One thing Donald Douglas demanded was that she hold her altitude on one engine. She became the luxury airliner of the late 1930s and made air travel practicable. More than 11,000 DC-3s were built for the military during World War II, and several hundred are still flying. This book defines the versatility of this aircraft for delivering cargo of all kinds, dropping paratroopers, evacuating wounded, towing gliders (three at a time), and, with engines removed, being gliders, landing on studded snow tires, skis or pontoons as the mission required, then being reconverted to airline service after the war.—Print Ed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tannenberg Publishing
• Release date: Nov 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781786256959

Lt.-Col. Carroll V. Glines

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Text originally published in 1958 under the same title.

© Pickle Partners Publishing 2015, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

GRAND OLD LADY: STORY OF THE DC-3

by

LIEUTENANT COLONEL CARROLL V. GLINES, JR.

and

LIEUTENANT COLONEL WENDELL F. MOSELEY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

DEDICATION 5

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6

INTRODUCTION 7

FOREWORD 8

CHAPTER 1—THE EVOLUTION OF AN AIRPLANE 9

Birth Of The DC Family 9

Life And Death Of The DC-1 13

The Race That Made The Name Douglas Famous 14

The Short Life Of The DC-2 17

DC-3 Puts Commercial Air Lines In The Black 19

The Super DC-3 31

Methuselah Of The Skies 33

CHAPTER 2—IT HAPPENED ON THE AIRLINES 35

The Slick Chicks 35

Plan A 38

Que pasa? 39

Downdraft 41

CHAPTER 3—THE ARMY IS IMPRESSED 43

The DC Transport Enlists 43

The C-33 Helps Aviation Progress In A Strange Way 46

CHAPTER 4—THE DC GOES TO WAR 48

The DC-2 Fights Its First War 48

The DC-3 Goes To War 49

Guadalcanal 51

Oran 54

Secret Air Line 57

Transports In The Philippines 59

The Russians Have A Name For It 63

The Gooneys Of Hagaru-ri 66

CHAPTER 5—WINGED LAUGHTER 74

The Arab’s Big Bird 74

Change Of Crew 75

The Winter Boys 76

America’s Secret Weapon 78

Graham Cracker Fiasco 80

CHAPTER 6—HOW MUCH CAN IT REALLY HAUL 83

CNAC 83

Mowat’s Last Mission 102

Test Hop 103

Single Engine 104

PAP or PSP? 105

CHAPTER 7—OVER THE DROP ZONE 108

Jackass Airlift 108

The Kicker 111

Lipstick Express 113

Repeat Performance 128

CHAPTER 8—PAGE MR. RIPLEY 132

The Cooking Oil 132

The Sergeant Saves An Airplane 134

Bombs Away 135

Scratch One Zero 137

A C-47 Turns Cupid 139

Unscheduled Stop 141

Permission Granted 141

CHAPTER 9—SILENT WINGS 143

Atlantic Sky-Glide 143

Pickup 144

The Glider 145

CHAPTER 10—HOW MUCH CAN IT TAKE? 150

Clipped Wings 150

Ripped Apart 152

Incident At Whenuapai 153

The George Walker Story 161

Frostbitten 171

CHAPTER 11—STRANGE OFFSPRING 176

The DC-2½ 176

Airborne Telephone 177

Flying Command Post 179

Mosquito Bombers 180

Airborne Laundromat 180

Dumbo 181

The Rooftop 183

The Voice 184

Same Shape—New Engines 186

CHAPTER 12—ANGEL IN DISGUISE 188

Airborne Angels 188

Miscalculation 190

CHAPTER 13—THE DC-3 IS REWARDED 192

The DC-3 Is Rewarded 192

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 196

DEDICATION

TO MARY ELLEN AND FRANCES

FOR THEIR WIFELY ENCOURAGEMENT AND FORBEARANCE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Had it not been for the tireless efforts of Mr. Joe B. Messick, public relations representative for Douglas Aircraft Co.; Mrs. Ida Herschensohn, Douglas Aircraft Librarian; the airlines of America and the individual contributors, this book could not have been written. We would like to thank the following individuals and airline companies for their generous assistance: Donald W. Douglas, Donald W. Douglas, Jr., General Maxwell D. Taylor, General Anthony C. McAuliffe, Colonel Frank J. MacNees, Colonel Troy Crawford, Lieutenant Colonel Charles A. Rawls, Master Sergeant Walter E. Jones, Major James F. Sunderman, Major Annis G. Thompson, Master Sergeant D. S. Williams, Mrs. Bea Estep, Major Paul C. Fritz, George W. Walker, Mrs. Varena Knotts, Lieutenant Colonel Perry C. Emmons, Major Archie G. Burdette, Major Harold T. Allen, Major Frank Sweeney, Major Donald V. Browne, Lieutenant Colonel Donald A. Shaw, Captain Francis Satterlee, William Johnston, Colonel Paul S. Deems, Shepard Dudley and the public relations representatives of Allegheny Airlines, American Airlines, Bonanza Airlines, Central Airlines, Eastern Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Lake Central Airlines, Mohawk Airlines, North Central Airlines, Ozark Air Lines, Piedmont Airlines, Southern Airways, Southwest Airways, Trans-Texas Airways, Trans World Airlines, and West Coast Airlines.

In searching out the material for this book, we found that there were hundreds of people who had tales to tell about the DC-3. Unfortunately, we could not record them all here. However, we have included representative samples which show what the airplane did and can do. Because we did not include stories about each military flying unit, each airline, or each individual who had an interesting experience to relate does not mean that they would not make good reading or should not have been included in this book. When one considers the vast areas over which the airplane has flown, and the millions of people who have either flown it or flown in it, it is easy to understand that volumes could be written about the most famous airplane in the world. To all those who so kindly sent us material which they will not find mentioned here, we gratefully acknowledge their interest in our common love, that graceful, Grand Old Lady of the Skies—the DC-3.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL CARROLL V. GLINES, JR.

and

LIEUTENANT COLONEL WENDELL F. MOSELEY

INTRODUCTION

During the last 55 years the world has seen literally thousands of airplanes of every type and description come and go. In this time two big wars and scores of little ones have proven the airplane’s value as a weapon of war. And, between wars, the airplane has become an instrument of peace. It is now commonly accepted that no more wars can ever be fought and no peace truly successful without the airplane playing a dominant role as an instrument of power—either military or economic. In the short time-span of half a century the airplane has changed from a symbol of folly and daring to a symbol of strength and national vigor.

Of all the airplanes that have contributed to aviation progress there is one which has surpassed all others in faithful service and dependability. There is only one which has been parked on the ramps of the world’s air terminals for 25 years. There is only one which was adopted by the military service during the days of wooden propellers and is still around as we pass from the jet age into the rocket era.

This fabulous airplane has earned itself many names and set many records. It has flown more miles, piled up more hours of flying time, carried more cargo and passengers, and performed more impossible feats than any other airplane in the world. The manufacturer calls it the Skytrain. The Air Force calls it the C-47. The Navy calls it the R4D. The airlines call it the DC-3. The Air Force pilots who fly it call it, affectionately, the Gooney.

This book is about that airplane. It tells the story of its birth, its development, its adoption by the airlines and the military, its use in World War II, its conversion to civilian use around the world, its innumerable feats as an angel of mercy, its employment as a jack-of-all-trades and, finally, its future. It is a collection of many short stories that go to make up the big story of the most beloved and respected airplane on earth.

The authors fell in love with this airplane while they were teenagers and watched her come and go at their local airports. They dreamed of the time when they could fly one of these magnificent craft, and that time came for both of them when they won their wings as pilots in Uncle Sam’s Army Air Corps. Since that day they have logged hundreds of hours in the Grand Old Lady and have flown her over thousands of miles of the earth’s surface. Each hour and each mile have impressed them with the fact that no other airplane that’s ever been made is as safe, as rugged and as dependable as the twin-engine Douglas transport. For them, collecting these tales has been a labor of love.

The reader, even if not a pilot, will be fascinated by the exploits of the airplane and the men who fly her. Young and old alike will gain a respect for this flying machine such as they could never have for any other kind of man-made object. Everyone who reads this book will have a better appreciation for and an understanding of the contribution this airplane has made to the air strength of our nation.

FOREWORD

For most of the past four decades my time and energies have been devoted to design and manufacture of commercial and military aircraft; and, for approximately the last half of that period, our organization has also undertaken research and production of missiles, culminating in our present work in the highly technical field of space equipment.

In 1921 the Douglas Cloudster took to the air. None of us who watched our initial model’s first flight would have predicted the Cloudster would be followed by scores of designs and variations that have rolled from our assembly lines ever since. Each succeeding model was built for a specific type of flight duty, and I believe it reasonable to say in all due modesty that all of them were well-designed and successful aircraft.

A few of our designs attained some degree of fame, and one of them, the DC-3, has become almost legendary. It seems to go on forever. More than ten thousand of these transports were built, several thousand remaining in service today, and representing a twenty-five year span of service. It is fairly safe to predict that a few of these hardy veterans will be flying twenty-five years from today.

There is a warm and permanent place in my affections and memories for this airplane, and an even warmer sense of respect for the airline operators, the technicians, and all of the commercial and military pilots who have worked and lived with these ships in all corners of the world. To these men must go the largest measure of credit for the multiple exploits, the almost incredible adventures, and even more importantly, the solid years of dependable and workaday accomplishment that combine to perpetuate the DC-3 legend.

DONALD W. DOUGLAS, SR.

CHAPTER 1—THE EVOLUTION OF AN AIRPLANE

Birth Of The DC Family

The office of Mr. Donald Wills Douglas was always a busy place. Douglas, about to embark on his twentieth year in the aviation industry, looked up as his secretary quietly entered his office.

Anything in the mail today? he asked.

Oh, just the usual, she answered. But there is one letter you might be happy to see. It’s from your friend, Jack Frye. She laid the stack of letters in the In box and left the room.

Douglas opened the letter and read it carefully. It was a brief, two-paragraph letter dated August 2, 1932 and signed by Jack Frye, then vice-president in charge of operations for Trans Continental and Western Air, Inc. It was to prove itself one of the most important letters Donald W. Douglas was ever to receive.

Frye wanted to know simply whether or not Douglas would be interested in building an all metal tri-motor monoplane with a maximum gross weight of 14,200 pounds, a fuel capacity for a cruising range of 1,000 miles at 150 miles per hour, and able to carry a crew of two and at least 12 passengers. Douglas reread the letter and pressed a buzzer.

Yes, Mr. Douglas!

Ask Harry Wetzel, Art Raymond and the rest of the engineers to come in here, please.

Douglas went back to the two-page list of specifications that accompanied the Frye letter. As he studied it and restudied it, he made some figures on a pad. The secretary announced that the men were ready to see him.

Thank you. Send them in.

The group filed in silently. They felt that something urgent was in the air. They had worked for and with Donald Douglas long enough to know that he didn’t fool around with unnecessary meetings. When he called them in it was because he had something to say or he wanted their best advice on something.

They took chairs and waited. Douglas was lost in thought as he made figures on his desk pad. The group watched and then looked at each other uncomfortably. Something was up.

Fellows, I just got a letter from my old friend Jack Frye. Here, read it and pass it around.

The engineers read it in pairs and passed it on. No one said a word. The last man in the group passed it back to Douglas.

All right. You know why I called you up here. What do you think?

One by one the members of the group gave their views. They argued, agreed, then argued some more. Douglas was silent as they hashed it out. He had the best engineers in the business as far as he was concerned and he loved to hear them argue about their theories.

Finally, one of the engineers turned to Douglas and said, Doug, with the specifications TWA is calling for, there isn’t an airplane in the world that can do it.

"No, you’re right. But I figure that a combination of all the airplanes could do it. I think you fellows can come up with something and you’ve got two weeks to do it. What do you say?"

The group smiled. Sure, they could try. The same group had designed the whole stable of Douglas airplanes. There was the old Cloudster, designed, built, and flown in 1920. After the Cloudster, four years later, came the World Cruiser in which the U. S. Army flyers first circled the globe. Then followed the C-1 and then the M-1, -2, -3 and -4—the first airplanes designed expressly to carry the mail. On each one of them it was Douglas who had inspired them and when they had bogged down and thought it couldn’t be done, he was the one who would give them renewed confidence in their own abilities. If Doug said he thought they could do it, they’d damn sure try!

Two weeks to design an airplane isn’t long, as the reader can well imagine. Harry Wetzel, the general manager, and Arthur Raymond, then the assistant chief engineer, weren’t finished with their figures when they caught the train for New York. They bundled their plans and specifications under their arms and boarded the Pullman. They asked the porter for a table and they kept on working. Time sped by and so did the countryside but the two dedicated engineers were oblivious to both.

On the appointed day, Wetzel and Raymond walked into the TWA office in New York and laid the plans on Frye’s desk. Frye called in his experts and they pored over the Douglas figures and drawings.

Wetzel and Raymond withdrew from the group and sat down on chairs along the wall. The group of airline pilots and executives buzzed among themselves for a long time.

It looks impossible but if you think you can do it we’re willing to let you try, Frye finally told the haggard engineers. Tell Doug that we can’t quite believe it. You’ve got stuff here that we haven’t even heard of yet. It looks like you’ve used the Northrup wing and the engines are something new that Wright is working on. You’ve got automatic pilots and variable pitch propellers—and, well, you seem to’ve met all the specifications. Tell Doug we’d like to see this baby of yours, and the sooner the better.

Wetzel and Raymond looked at each other. Their hands shook as they lit their cigarettes. Doug and the gang will be happy tonight, they thought to themselves.

Happy was the understatement of the year as far as the Douglas employees were concerned. With the plant shut down and only a skeleton force around to keep the rust off of the machinery, things had looked rather hopeless for the future. The aircraft industry had been hard hit by the depression and when any aircraft manufacturer got even a faint hope for an order, it was really a cause for rejoicing.

* * * * * *

Weeks followed without any visible sign of an airplane being born. Then, gradually, the various shops began to get the drawings from which they were to make the thousand and one parts that go to make up an airplane. Each employee, anxious to do his part in making this new airplane, was excited as the drawings came to him. They were marked mysteriously with the code DC-1 and they learned that it meant Douglas Commercial—1st Model.

Gradually on the assembly floor the giant fuselage took shape. Its graceful lines slowly developed as day after day sheet metal workers formed her. She looked almost like a real airplane when the vertical stabilizer was finally put on, and when the wing sections were fitted into place it was a sudden transformation which made the workers stand in awe. Here was the most graceful airplane ever built. This sleek, shiny man-made all metal bird represented the newest thing in aviation development. The question was: Would it fly?

* * * * * *

The calendar on the wall of the flight line maintenance shed read July 1, 1933. A group of mechanics busied themselves around the shed. To them the first flight of a new airplane-meant hours and sometimes days of tinkering with engines, fuel lines, pumps and the hundreds of little things that, if neglected, can mean the difference between life and death. No mechanic ever born wants to be responsible for doing or not doing some little thing that could cause death or injury to a crew.

It had been announced that the first flight of the DC-1 would be made by Carl A. Cover, vice president in charge of sales. Cover, attired tastefully in a tweed suit and a bright green hat, climbed aboard with Fred Herman, assistant engineer. The word had spread. Lined up on both sides of Santa Monica’s Clover Field runway were crowds of people. Santa Monica residents had gotten used to Douglas first flights, but somehow there was still the same fascination. Everyone wanted to see if this new Douglas bird would fly and, if so, how well.

Cover busied himself in the cockpit checking switches, hydraulic pressure and instrument readings. When both men were secure in their seats, Cover leaned out of his window and shouted Clear!

A mechanic standing on the left side, hand on a fire extinguisher, gave him the signal indicating that all was clear. Cover touched the starter switch on the port engine. The starter snarled. The propeller turned a few stiff revolutions. Then the engine fired and broke into a roar. The other engine was started and Cover taxied into take-off position.

After running the engines up, checking controls and making a last minute check of his safety belt, Cover pulled out onto the runway. Instead of taking off, however, Cover taxied up and down the runway testing brakes, and again, controls and engines. Finally he nosed the gentle giant into the wind, opened the throttles as far as they would go and headed down the field.

The beautiful craft, full of life and vigor, sped straight ahead, a beautiful sight in the early morning sun. The tail came up slowly, then the main wheels came off the ground. The engines purred as smoothly as a new watch.

Suddenly, without warning, just as Cover pulled into a climb, the left engine sputtered and quit. The crowd gasped. A woman screamed. The craft nosed down momentarily and as it did, the engine caught again. The crowd sighed. Cover cautiously lifted the nose again and as he did, both engines quit with that awful silence the full meaning of which only pilots can sense. Again Cover jammed the nose forward, and again the twin engines roared back to life.

Cover, his hands busy in the cockpit, had no time to think. He was an old hand at the flying game and his reflexes saved his life. The reflex that told him to get the nose down when he lost an engine was the very reflex that made the engine cut back in again. The second time it happened he reasoned that he would have to climb carefully. He nursed the craft slowly to 1,000 feet and started his turn. The engines were sputtering and he decided to land the plane in a nearby field rather than risk a complete traffic pattern.

As the airplane disappeared behind the hangar, the crowds gasped, sure that they would see a billow of smoke and hear the heartrending sound of metal crashing to earth. But no noise was heard and no smoke appeared. The people turned to one another and, with questioning looks, started to speculate on what had happened. Douglas engineers rushed to their cars and disappeared in the direction where they had last seen their baby.

Cover had made a successful, controlled landing with no damage to the airplane. As he and Herman climbed out, a little pale and visibly shaken, the first car containing the engineers roared up.

What happened, Carl? they asked in unison.

The dad-blamed engines cut out. That’s all I know. Every time I tried to get the nose up, she cut out. I think you’d better check those carburetors. There’s something screwy in Denmark. Cover wiped the perspiration from his forehead.

Engineers swarmed over the engines after the airplane was towed back to Clover Field. It was some time before they discovered that the experimental carburetors were to blame, just as Cover had suggested. The floats were hinged in the rear, shutting off the gas whenever the nose of the craft was pulled up into climbing position. The carburetors were turned 180°, and the trouble was permanently corrected.

Weeks later, Cover was airborne again, and completed a series of tests which gave the Douglas engineers the data they needed. Then they knew that their fondest dreams had been realized. Their baby could fly. It could do everything they said it could do. Little did they realize that it could do more and that its offspring would set so many records and so many aviation firsts that the record keepers would get tired of even listing them.

And thus was born the first of a long line of airplanes destined to become the most famous in the world.

Life And Death Of The DC-1

The original DC-1 was the only one ever built. After its initial test flights by Douglas pilots, the DC-1 was delivered to TWA DC-1 in December, 1933, and was used on their routes to gather cost data which would determine whether or not the Douglas plane could be used economically.

For fully five months TWA tested the airplane. The first thing they tried was an assault on the transcontinental record. This was immediately broken by the One. Then to test its load-carrying capabilities, TWA pilots took off from Winslow, Arizona, loaded with nine tons of cargo. As they got the gear up and were safely air-borne, the pilot shut off one engine and the craft climbed to 8,000 feet. Two hours and 240 miles later, the DC-1 landed nonchalantly at Albuquerque, New Mexico, as if it were an everyday occurrence.

Each passing day proved to TWA that Douglas had furnished them an airplane that couldn’t be beaten. Over a measured course it broke three American records and set eight new ones. Later it made six world records and bettered two more. TWA was impressed, to say the least. They promptly ordered twenty-five more of the same type but with slight changes.

When the order arrived and the modifications were studied, the Douglas engineers decided to call the resulting airplane the DC-2. The DC-1 had cost $300,000 to build but the agreed price to TWA was only $125,000. The twenty-five DC-2’s were ordered at only $65,000 apiece, and Douglas lost a total of $226,000 on the twenty-six airplanes.

Although TWA started to get the new aircraft within a few months, the line continued to use the DC-1 for experimental work. It became known in the press as the laboratory airplane. In 1934, Jack Frye and Eddie Rickenbacker teamed up to set a non-stop cross-country record from Burbank to Newark, taking thirteen hours and two minutes for the trip. This record was cut to eleven hours and five minutes in April, 1935.

Early in 1934, the Department of Commerce and the Army Air Corps used the DC-1 to test a new Sperry automatic pilot which was linked to a radio compass.