{"id":29234775,"date":"2026-10-23T10:42:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T08:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/douglas-dc-3-airliner-history-cr-smith-c-47\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T10:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T08:43:11","slug":"douglas-dc-3-airliner-history-cr-smith-c-47","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/douglas-dc-3-airliner-history-cr-smith-c-47\/","title":{"rendered":"Douglas DC-3: The Airliner That Made Flying Pay for Itself"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n\n\n\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid #0F1720;background:#fff;color:#0F1720;font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;font-weight:700;line-height:1;letter-spacing:0;text-transform:none;cursor:pointer;box-shadow:none;transition:background .15s,color 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Smith, the president of American Airlines, picked up the telephone and would not put it down. On the other end was Donald Douglas, who had a perfectly good airliner, the DC-2, and no particular wish to build another. Smith wanted a wider version with sleeping berths to replace American&rsquo;s slow Curtiss Condor biplanes. By the end of what Douglas historians call a marathon call, Smith had promised to buy 20, and Douglas had agreed.<\/p><p>The result was the Douglas DC-3, and it did something no airliner had managed before: it made money carrying people. Within three years it was carrying almost all of America&rsquo;s airline passengers, and within ten it had helped win a world war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f9;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:18px 22px;margin:28px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> Douglas DC-3 (prototype: Douglas Sleeper Transport, DST)<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>First flight:<\/strong> 17 December 1935, piloted by Carl Cover<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Entered service:<\/strong> 26 June 1936, American Airlines<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Engines:<\/strong> Two Wright R-1820 Cyclone or Pratt &amp; Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radials<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Passengers:<\/strong> 21 to 32<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Range:<\/strong> About 1,500 miles (2,400 km)<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Built:<\/strong> 607 civil DC-3s; 16,079 including C-47s and licence-built Li-2s and L2Ds (Wikipedia)<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Still flying:<\/strong> Estimated at about 150 in 2023<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A sleeper plane that became a day plane<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>The prototype flew on 17 December 1935, the 32nd anniversary of the Wright brothers&rsquo; first flight, as the Douglas Sleeper Transport, fitted with sleeping berths. The day version that followed seated 21 passengers in a cabin wide enough for comfort, on a strong all-metal, multi-spar wing. American Airlines put it into service on 26 June 1936.<\/p><p>Its economics changed the industry. Until then, airlines depended on government airmail contracts to stay in business; passengers were almost a sideline. The DC-3 carried enough of them, cheaply enough, to turn a profit on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;It was the first airplane in the world that could make money just by hauling passengers.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>C.R. Smith<\/strong> &mdash; President of American Airlines, as quoted by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/douglas-dc-3-airliner-history-cr-smith-c-47-img1.jpg\" alt=\"Douglas Sleeper Transport of United Air Lines on the ground at Oakland\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A Douglas Sleeper Transport in United Air Lines colours at Oakland. The DST, with its berths, was the first member of the DC-3 family. (Photo: Bill Larkins \/ CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By 1938, according to the Smithsonian, 95 percent of U.S. commercial airline traffic was flying on DC-3s, and by 1939 around 90 percent of the world&rsquo;s airline flights were made by the type or its variants. Rival designs such as the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/boeing-247-first-modern-airliner-united-dc-3\/\">Boeing 247<\/a> were left behind almost overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VV-7OYg2NTg\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:0 0 24px;font-style:italic\">What you didn&rsquo;t know about the amazing DC-3 (Mentour Now!).<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">From airliner to warhorse<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>War turned a commercial success into a legend. As the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/c-47-skytrain\/\">C-47 Skytrain<\/a>, the Dakota to the British, and in dozens of other versions, the design became the standard Allied transport of the Second World War. More than 10,000 military C-47s and C-53s were built in the United States. The Soviet Union licence-built nearly 5,000 as the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/lisunov-li-2\/\">Lisunov Li-2<\/a>, and Japan built almost 500 as the Showa L2D, so the same airliner flew on both sides of the Pacific war.<\/p><p>C-47s dropped paratroopers on D-Day, flew supplies over the Himalayan &ldquo;Hump&rdquo; to China and, in 1948, opened the Berlin Airlift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/douglas-dc-3-airliner-history-cr-smith-c-47-img2.jpg\" alt=\"C-47 transports unloading at Tempelhof during the 1948 Berlin Airlift\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">C-47s unload at Tempelhof, Berlin, in 1948, in the first weeks of the Berlin Airlift. (U.S. Air Force photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;is universally recognized as the greatest airplane of its time&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Boeing<\/strong> &mdash; corporate history of the DC-3, as quoted by Flying magazine<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Production totals vary with what you count. Wikipedia gives 16,079 airframes including all licence builds; the Smithsonian&rsquo;s figure is about 13,000. Either way, no other airliner of its era came close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_9SDagZt5i4\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:0 0 24px;font-style:italic\">Why the DC-3 continues to fly decades after the Second World War (Smithsonian Channel).<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The only replacement for a DC-3<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>After the war, thousands of surplus C-47s were converted back into airliners and freighters, and the type became the workhorse of airlines that were just getting started all over the world. The Smithsonian&rsquo;s own DC-3 flew more than 56,700 hours with Eastern Air Lines before its last commercial flight in October 1952.<\/p><p>Pilots have a saying, quoted on the type&rsquo;s Wikipedia page: the only replacement for a DC-3 is another DC-3. Some operators took that literally. Basler Turbo Conversions in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, rebuilds old airframes as the BT-67, with Pratt &amp; Whitney Canada PT6A turboprops and a fuselage stretched by 40 inches. BT-67s still land at the South Pole every Antarctic summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/douglas-dc-3-airliner-history-cr-smith-c-47-img3.jpg\" alt=\"TransNorthern Douglas DC-3 landing at Anchorage, Alaska\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A TransNorthern DC-3 lands at Anchorage, Alaska, where the type still earns a living as a freighter. (Photo: Frank Kovalchek \/ CC BY 2.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The number still flying is shrinking, from an estimated 2,000 in 2013 to around 150 in 2023, as parts and maintenance get harder to find. But nine decades after C.R. Smith&rsquo;s phone call, a DC-3 somewhere is still starting its radials on a cold morning and going to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lZoLn3cO93c\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:0 0 24px;font-style:italic\">Douglas DC-3: the plane that didn&rsquo;t want to stop flying (Spark).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Sources: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Wikipedia (Douglas DC-3), Flying magazine, Boeing<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\n\n\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\n\n\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>Why was the Douglas DC-3 so important?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Douglas DC-3 was one of the first airliners able to make a profit carrying only passengers, without relying on airmail subsidies. American Airlines president C.R. Smith said it was the first airplane in the world that could make money just by hauling passengers. By 1938 it carried 95 percent of U.S. airline traffic.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>When did the DC-3 first fly?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The prototype, the Douglas Sleeper Transport, first flew on 17 December 1935 with test pilot Carl Cover at the controls. American Airlines began DC-3 passenger service on 26 June 1936.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many DC-3s were built?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Douglas built 607 civilian DC-3s. Including more than 10,000 military C-47s and C-53s and licence-built Lisunov Li-2s in the Soviet Union and Showa L2Ds in Japan, the total reaches about 16,000. The Smithsonian gives a lower figure of about 13,000.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What is the difference between a DC-3 and a C-47?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The C-47 Skytrain is the military transport version of the DC-3, with a strengthened floor, a large cargo door and other changes for carrying troops, paratroopers and freight. The British called it the Dakota. It was the standard Allied transport of the Second World War.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Are DC-3s still flying today?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. Estimates put about 150 DC-3s still flying in 2023, down from around 2,000 a decade earlier. Many work as freighters in remote regions, and turboprop Basler BT-67 conversions fly in Antarctica, including to the South Pole.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Who ordered the first DC-3?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">American Airlines president C.R. Smith persuaded Donald Douglas to build a wider sleeper version of the DC-2 and committed to buying 20 aircraft. That Douglas Sleeper Transport became the DC-3.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why was the Douglas DC-3 so important?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The Douglas DC-3 was one of the first airliners able to make a profit carrying only passengers, without relying on airmail subsidies. American Airlines president C.R. Smith said it was the first airplane in the world that could make money just by hauling passengers. By 1938 it carried 95 percent of U.S. airline traffic.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"When did the DC-3 first fly?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The prototype, the Douglas Sleeper Transport, first flew on 17 December 1935 with test pilot Carl Cover at the controls. American Airlines began DC-3 passenger service on 26 June 1936.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How many DC-3s were built?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Douglas built 607 civilian DC-3s. Including more than 10,000 military C-47s and C-53s and licence-built Lisunov Li-2s in the Soviet Union and Showa L2Ds in Japan, the total reaches about 16,000. The Smithsonian gives a lower figure of about 13,000.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What is the difference between a DC-3 and a C-47?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The C-47 Skytrain is the military transport version of the DC-3, with a strengthened floor, a large cargo door and other changes for carrying troops, paratroopers and freight. The British called it the Dakota. It was the standard Allied transport of the Second World War.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Are DC-3s still flying today?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes. 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That Douglas Sleeper Transport became the DC-3.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/boeing-247-first-modern-airliner-united-dc-3\/\">Boeing 247: The First Modern Airliner Boeing Refused to Sell<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/one-aircraft-every-62-seconds-the-berlin-airlift\/\">One Aircraft Every 62 Seconds: The Berlin Airlift<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/the-hump-airlift-himalayas-cbi-wwii\/\">The Hump: The Deadliest Airlift of the War<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/catalina-affair-1952-swedish-dc-3-baltic-shootdown\/\">Catalina Affair: The Shootdown Sweden Denied for 40 Years<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Share this story In the mid-1930s, C.R. Smith, the president of American Airlines, picked up the telephone and would not put it down. On the other end was Donald Douglas, who had a perfectly good airliner, the DC-2, and no particular wish to build another. Smith wanted a wider version with sleeping berths to replace [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":29234689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,666],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29234775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-history-and-legends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Douglas DC-3: The Airliner That Made Flying Pay | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Douglas DC-3 was the first airliner to make money carrying only passengers. 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