Sunday, March 15, 2026

Your Sunday Morning Prop Noise

The classic DC-3:



89 years after the first one flew, it's asafe bet that, somewhere in the world, there is a working DC-3 in the air. It was such a solid design that Douglas Aircraft Co. didn't make a prototype. The first one off the line, a sleeper version, went right into service. x The DC-3 made scheduled transcontinental airline service a reality.

Before the DC-3, it took the better part of a week to travel by rail from New York to Los Angeles, including changing trains and stations in Chicago. TAT, the predecessor to TWA, cut that down to 48 hours with its combo service- flying in a Ford Trimotor during the day and switching to a train for the overnight leg. American's DST service would leave New York (really, Newark, as neither LaGuardia nor Idlewild were not yet built) in the afternoon and land in Los Angeles (really, Glendale, as LAX didn't attract airline service until after the war) the following morning, for the princely sum of about $150, which was about $3,500 in today's money, which is well over double the first-class fare now, but you won't get your own berth.
on or about

2 comments:

  1. Unknown3/15/2026 1:10 PM

    good memories of flying third seat out of VT29 NAS Corpus Christi, bird did not
    not like landing just wanted to fly
    Patrick

    ReplyDelete
  2. Old NFO3/15/2026 5:32 PM

    It's said when the last 747 goes to the boneyard, a DC-3 will be there to pick up the crew! :-)

    ReplyDelete

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