Design and Development
The United States Army Air Forces commissioned the DC-6 project as the XC-112 in 1944. The Army Air Forces wanted an expanded, pressurized version of the popular DC-4 based C-54 Skymaster transport with improved engines. By the time the renamed XC-112A flew, the war was over and the USAAF had rescinded its requirement.
Douglas converted its prototype into a civil transport (redesignated YC-112A, having significant differences from subsequent production DC-6 aircraft) and delivered the first production DC-6 in March 1947. However, a series of mysterious inflight fires (including the fatal crash of United Airlines Flight 608) grounded the DC-6 fleet later that year. The cause was found to be a fuel vent located adjacent to the cabin cooling turbine intake. All DC-6s in service were modified to correct the problem and the fleet was flying again after just four months on the ground.
Read more about this topic: Douglas DC-6
Famous quotes containing the words design and/or development:
“To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons.”
—Marilyn French (20th century)
“The work of adult life is not easy. As in childhood, each step presents not only new tasks of development but requires a letting go of the techniques that worked before. With each passage some magic must be given up, some cherished illusion of safety and comfortably familiar sense of self must be cast off, to allow for the greater expansion of our distinctiveness.”
—Gail Sheehy (20th century)