re: #72 Decatur Deb

My first flight was in an Ozark Airlines DC-3. Was surprised to learn they had doped linen control surfaces.

As I mentioned this morning, the DC-3 was my favorite aircraft before the Trump blimp. It is also the largest aircraft that I am rated to fly. It is fantastic. Today they are known mostly for their phenomenal longevity, but it was one of the most advanced aircraft in the world when it first appeared in 1936, a stunning revelation. It brought together all the advances that had been made in the previous few years, retractable gear, flaps, all metal structure, variable pitch props, etc. and matched them to an airframe that was ideally sized for the requirements of the time. It is a very good handling aircraft, with smooth and well balanced controls and a low wing loading with almost perfect stall characteristics. One drawback is that the wingspan is enormous compared to a modern plane of similar capacity, 90 feet. This makes it practically impossible to taxi solo, since you can’t see the right wing tip from the pilot’s seat. Otherwise, it would be easy to fly solo and this has been done many times, presumably with a big open space for taxiing. In fact, almost everything that can be done with an airplane has been done with a DC-3, including flights with a hundred passengers vs. the normal 21 and at 60% above rated gross weight. They have also taken off from an aircraft carrier, carried out many kinds of attack mission, shot down enemy planes and operated from floats. It was the first aircraft to land at the South Pole and highly modified DC-3s continue to do so right to the present day.