Design and Development
After the abortive DC-4E proved to be complicated to maintain and uneconomical to operate, Douglas responded to the Eastern and United requests for a smaller and simpler derivative. Before the definitive DC-4 could enter service the outbreak of World War II meant production was channeled to the United States Army Air Forces and the type was given the military designation C-54 Skymaster, with US Navy aircraft designated Douglas R5D. The first aircraft, 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 be constant cross-section for most of its length, so it could be easily stretched into the later DC-6 and DC-7. A total of 1,163 C-54/R5Ds were built for the United States military services between 1942 and January 1946.
Read more about this topic: Douglas DC-4
Famous quotes containing the words design and/or development:
“Westerners inherit
A design for living
Deeper into matter—
Not without due patter
Of a great misgiving.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The American has dwindled into an Odd Fellow—one who may be known by the development of his organ of gregariousness.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)