August 1957 in the skies above Missouri an airforce plane is in trouble out of gas pilot and crew bailout what happens next would become the stuff of legend the unpiloted plane should have crashed instead it makes a perfect landing this is the story of the dc-3 the plane that defined the way we fly it heralded a new era of air travel it is very glamorous it's mostly celebrities and businessmen and became a war hero I've seen him come in with holes in the wings and the motor shot out everything else a maverick from its inception here comes the Douglas company coming in with we're going to give you something revolutionary it's development laid the cornerstones of aviation as we know it today that is truly the linchpin of American and global air transport it's the plane that created a revolution and changed the world June 5th 1944 the night before d-day 13,000 US paratroopers bought a fleet of c-47 planes bound for France it's the biggest airborne operation in history among those aboard is 21 year olds Don Jake way of the 82nd Airborne Division they were sitting on the plane I'd be going over I was kind of sitting back and I'm thinking to myself what am I doing here they'll need to fly low over territory bristling with German anti-aircraft guns but their planes have no weapons nor even protective armor because the c-47 is actually a dc-3 a passenger plane likely modified for the military the odds of surviving their mission are horrendous general Ridgway said you can expect any 5% casualty rate that means 85 out of 100 will not make it but the paratroopers have faith that the big ugly plane they call the goony bird will get them to their destination one of the pilots that night is Julian bud rice c-47 intended to flap their wings like a bird out there you know they were very they had very large wingspan and so the attendant wants her own line they were very reliable the fleet flying close formation according to plan across the English Channel but I'm reaching France they run into trouble we hit landfall suddenly there was a land fog everyone in the formation disappeared from sight it was total blackout when bud emerges from the fog all hell breaks loose I came on I could see a lot of planes hit my flak and exploding the air others that maybe collide it went down this was five minutes of this year terror the Allies are depending on the c-47s to make it through deliver the paratroopers and help liberate France from Hitler's clutches it's a heavy burden for a military aircraft let alone for a plane that began life as a regular passenger airliner it's story begins in 1932 with the arrival of a letter at the offices of airplane manufacturer the Douglas Aircraft Company addressed a company boss Donald Douglas it comes from Jack Frye head of TWA then a new airline with big ambitions this is no routine business letter it would prove to be the birth certificate of a plane that would revolutionize air travel in the 30s the passenger airline business is still in its infancy and flying is wildly expensive the cost of a ticket to California from New York was about three hundred dollars it still is but in 1930 that could buy you a car with the u.s. in the midst of the Great Depression flying is strictly for the super-rich but a flight aboard an early commercial airplane is far from luxurious you see the advertisements and everyone's happy and smiling and eating well that was not the reality they were noisy drafty uncomfortable relatively slow you had a lot of engine fumes and gas and waste under the clock bed people did not feel very well necessarily after flying these you were flying 5,000 feet above the surface so you're in the very turbulent air on a lovely calm day he had a very smooth ride if not you were bounced all over the sky was taking a flight in the early passenger planes could be downright dangerous in 1931 disaster strikes a TWA plane with eight people on board crashes into a Kansas prairie an airplane fell apart literally in the sky killing all its passengers one of whom was Knute Rockne the legendary football coach of Notre Dame wasn't whether it wasn't pilot error that the the darn thing had rotted out from inside the crash is a wake-up call to the airline industry before air travel could become profitable it first had to become safe and affordable fear of flying if the airplane was going to come apart in some way for affairs that they were so expensive that but only the very wealthy could fly those are the two things holding back the growth of aviation boeing is the first to respond with a new plane that would electrify the industry the boeing 247 the boeing 247 is considered world's first modern airliner Boeing's new planes fifty percent faster than the widely used Ford tri-motor while using 1/5 less horsepower credibly efficient it's monoplane design with one set of low-lying cantilevered wings minimizes drag it is robustly made of aluminium alloy and is stable in flight which makes for a more comfortable ride all these were very important factors that made the 247 a revolutionary Emily United Airlines promptly orders fifty nine to four sevens an order that would keep Boeing busy for two years that leaves United with the best plane on the market and its rivals out in the cold The Boeing Company made a very clear to the airlines that you can have are 247 after d9 has all there's one airline isn't prepared to wait the boss of TWA issues his momentous challenge to the aviation industry build me a plane to rival the 247 the one the companies have responded to that was the douglas company of california headed by Donald Douglas Donald Douglas was one of the great names in aviation history he'd been around at the very beginning Douglas is a trained engineer and highly respected in the business this word was his bond he made countless deals selling airplanes on a handshake and paperwork to follow he was that well respected Douglas is renowned for building sturdy planes for the military but TWA bosses don't just want a 247 clone they want something bigger and better the 247 still did not go far enough and that's where Doug was capitalized using the 247 it's an example of what could be done but then going beyond it designing a passenger plane to beat the game-changing Boeing 247 is going to be no easy feat so Donald Douglas puts his best man on the job he's Protege engineer Arthur Raymond Raymond is an authentic American genius a man with drive and ambition Doug for season not only as a top flight engineer also somebody who will get the job done Douglas gives Raymond's just seven days to come up with a design the spec is ambitious the new plane would need to be able to fly 25% further 1600 kilometers non-stop and carry 12 passengers to more than the 247 it's a big gamble if Raymond gets the design right it would transform the fortunes of the Douglas Aircraft Company if he fails to deliver the company faces bankruptcy August 1932 Douglas aircrafts mastermind engineer Arthur Raymond pitches the design for their new passenger aircraft the DC 1/2 TWA they are taken aback by what they see when TWA so the initial concepts for this machine there was a big question mark because was the twin-engine airplane the Boeing 247 had proved that two engines could work but still reeling after the Kansas air crash TWA had specifically demanded three engines to to fly and one as a safety precaution the aerodynamics was so poor for the aircraft of those days that if a twin-engine design lost power in one engine it was simply descend and you needed a third engine to give it any chance at all remaining aloft here comes the douglas company coming in with no we're not going to give you what you thought you wanted we're gonna give you something revolutionary here TWA x' technical adviser is none other than Charles Lindbergh who'd flown the first transatlantic flight five years earlier Lindbergh is skeptical what a plane this size could survive losing an engine this thing fly yes definitely going to fly if you can make it fly no more buy it Raymond bet the company on the DC want their costs were not covered in the original contract they weren't going to make money on this thing until after they had delivered over a certain number of airplanes Raymond had used a complex aeronautical formula to design the DC one to prove it could fly on one engine he turns to nearby Cal Tech which is pioneering a new aviation technology wind tunnel testing one can arguably say that the Douglas DC one of the first scientifically designed American airplane and playing the key role in doing that was really the tunnel tests that we're done at Caltech the initial tests are deeply troubling despite the bold promises to TWA the dc1 is fundamentally unstable and prone to turbulence even with both engines working normally it had to do pretty much with a center gravity problem and how this wing and the fuselage fit together Raymond doesn't give up the team conducts more than 200 tunnel tests before coming up with a solution like other aircraft at the time the plane's wings are set at right angles to the fuselage Raymond discovers that sweeping back the wings shifts the center of gravity dramatically improving the plane stability the wing design approved so successful would really if we take a look at a lot of of subsequent aircraft we see that they all tend to emulate that moderate swept back approach and to minimize turbulence and drag between the wing of the fuselage engineers devised an element called a fin it that lovely little compound curve you see between where the the wing meets the fuselage it smooth it out considerably these modifications create a plane that should be able to maintain stable flight even on a single-engine wind tunnel testing has come a long way since the early days to become a fundamental part of the aviation design process the Airbus a380 went through 5,000 hours of wind tunnel tests finishing everything from ice prevention to noise reduction back in the 30s the Douglas team are grappling with the problem of how to slow down a large and powerful plane on landing their solution would become an integral feature of modern airplane design back then you didn't really have runways you had large fields you can't ask the city to build a whole new airport for you just for your one airplane so you try to make the airplane fit so how do you slow it down slow enough to have a comfortable landing yet maintain the ability to go fast and one the solution is flaps wing flaps has pioneered by Douglas are now used on all modern airliners on approach and landing lowering the flaps helps to bring the plane to a halt more quickly and while lowered for takeoff they dramatically increase a plane's lift meaning it can takeoff at slower speeds using shorter runways the dc1 never went into production but acts as a stepping stone to an even better version in May 1934 Douglas reveals their new plane the dc2 a 14 seater it's even faster and more powerful than its predecessor and immediately sets the air industry alight the dc2 came on the scene with a bang TWA flew this brand-new airliner across the country in record-setting time we have an airplane that's faster than anything that even the Army has it was very dramatic got headlines the dc2 could carry four more passengers than the rival Boeing two for sale it offered a faster smoother ride and needed fewer refueling stops the plane is a hit and Douglas production lines go into overdrive when the aircraft entered service it was obviously the airplane to have and immediately made the 247 obsolescent Douglas had scored a major coup against its rival Boeing but its greatest contribution to commercial aviation is yet to come May 1935 orders are pouring in for the Douglas Aircraft company's new plane the dc2 Donnell Douglas was looking at a full order book as far as the eye can see you're actually making money which in those days is almost heard of an aircraft production then Donald Douglas gets an unexpected call from the head of American Airlines CR Smith wants the dc2 for his fleet but with a twist he wants it adapted to create a sleeper aircraft with 14 beds in place of seats Donald Douglas absolutely convinced us it's a terrible idea and don't want any part of it the sleeper is a dead end there's only going to be a very few amount of these there's not going to be market for it's not going to work the way out CR Smith thinks but then Smith hen's Douglas an offer he can't refuse an order for 10 Douglas sleeper transport planes to the value of seven hundred and ninety five thousand dollars around fourteen million dollars in today's money this is no simple design tweak accommodating beds means making the dc2 are staggering 50% bigger usually when you expand an airplane design you stretch and you literally stretch it let me make it longer in this case they actually widened it early planes were built around a fuselage that resembled a flying box but the inherent weakness of a square set tight limits on a plane size by the 30s fuselages are becoming more rounded making them stronger Raymond and his team push things further than ever before what they came up with is the world's biggest circular fuselage a cylindrical shape is not only supremely aerodynamic but also very strong distributing forces evenly around the structure the round fuselage shape enhances the strength of the aircraft there's no real failure points on it no hard corners and like that it's just a remarkably strong design combined with a single skinned metal fuselage of the dc1 which helps to support the structure the new design would allow a big leap in size and weight Douglas pulls it off again creating the world's largest and most fuel-efficient modern airliner yet sleeper planes never catch on with passengers and are swiftly dropped but Donald Douglas isn't about to stand by and see his groundbreaking new plane mothballed more of the Douglas and Raymond started thinking about it then they started thinking beyond the sleeper transport it didn't take light was very quick Douglas realizes that replacing the beds with seats would increase the number of passengers by 50% the dc-3 is born a wonder of engineering it lays the foundations for the modern airliner it takes 6,000 people and half a million rivets to build everyone above all since it uses only 3% more fuel than its predecessor the extra 7 passengers the dc-3 could carry make it the first-ever profitable commercial airliner the Douglas team have achieved an extraordinary breakthrough an airliner that makes mass air travel possible when the dc-3 came along there was a real recognition that a new standard in Air Transport had arrived Air Transport was no longer nearly the stuff of the adventurous it was becoming routine flying coast-to-coast had meant a 25 hour ordeal now the dc-3 cuts that journey time almost in half but above all the dc-3 makes passengers feel safe it wasn't gonna make strange noises wasn't gonna smell funny with the gasoline fumes coming through it was going to have heating in it and so wasn't gonna be cold in wintertime the whole key for the airline industry was to make this normal and safe and the dc-3 makes it normal or safe it quickly became the airplane of choice of Airlines all over the United States and quickly around the world best they could get ahold of them fly is now glamorous the journey becomes the destination would you like a cigarette sir no negative even we have timing passengers recline in new levels of luxury not an option in smaller planes the dc-3 helps to popularize a new role in aviation the air hostess Vicki Harrell was one of a new breed aboard TWA s dc-3 fleet in the 1940s it was very glamorous someone TWA was known as the glamour airline so it's mostly celebrities in business man you've really got to know your passengers the man would ask you what your phone number was and stuff like can I call you when I get to New York can we dinner for the new air hostesses working 3,000 meters up is better than any job back on the ground enjoyed it so much I mean it was just exhilarating I love my job as one of the few jobs considered suitable for women competition is intense in 1935 2,000 women apply for just 43 positions offered by TWA entry requirements are tough alone applicants have to be between a meter fifty-two and a meter 62 and weigh between 45 and 50 3 kilos the weight restriction where they're very strict about that and in fact after you start flying we had weight checks every six weeks if you were cut like three or four times being overweight then you were fired and the training isn't just about looking good we had to learn everything about an airplane theory of flight we studied meteorology aerodynamics because people weren't flying very much in those days I mean it's so new a key part of the job is reassuring passengers unused to flying some people would be extremely nervous and you know of course I would come try and calm them down and I knew I could like a different and hostesses must come prepared for every eventuality they would wear a cape that had large pockets and in this pocket they would have to carry a wrench a hammer and a railway schedule because if in fact the weather got too rough they would have to land the aircraft and the stewardess would have to make sure that they knew what train schedule was to take the customer to the train station six years after its launch the dc-3 has sparked an explosive six-fold growth in US passenger miles by 1939 350 dc-3s have rolled out of the Douglass factory making it the unassailable queen of the skies it's estimated well over 80% of all the airliners flying in the United States were DC twos or threes it was just that good an airplane with a dc-3 commercial aviation came of age no aircraft in history has earned a greater reputation for dependable service then this universally famous 21 passenger transport the dc-3 helps boost an economy still recovering from the depression soon it will be called upon to perform an even more momentous task helping to save the world from a terrible new threat in December 1941 the bombing of Pearl Harbor propels America into a conflict that spans the globe the frame of the century death and destruction is gratitude for years of peace since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan a state of war has existed the army needs a rugged transport aircraft to shift troops and supplies to the frontline but creating a new plane from scratch would take too long luckily the US government and military have already foreseen the need for just such a plane they took a look around and what the airlines were flying flying superb transport planes particularly the dc-3 the order comes down get the dc-3 ready for war a keen sailor Douglas takes the team aboard his boat to brainstorm how to turn their airliner into a military transport plane it is kind of ironic when we think about it early a sky train suddenly turns itself into a military workhorse all he really did was put a cargo door on it and beefed up the the floor so it could take heavy loads that was it it's such a great airplane such a strong airplane you know they didn't have to modify much at all the dc-3 is reborn as the c-47 by 1944 a c-47 is rolling off the production lines every 34 minutes many of them destined for the British RAF who call them Dakotas the dc-3 see for you serving an amazingly over built airplane they didn't know how much stress various designs could take so they decide to over build it just to take care of it famously you could drive a one-ton Jeep through the c-47s cargo door it could carry 28 soldiers and often more in Burma one RAF Dakota evacuates 65 walking wounded the c-47s and Dakota's Hall troops and supplies to every theater of the war the c40 zone was critical for the war effort General Eisenhower claimed it's one of the most important war winning weapons of the Allies had perhaps the c-47s finest hour comes at the most critical moment of the war on the eve of d-day Julian but rice flies and unarmored c-47 carrying 21 paratroopers across the English Channel and into a barrage of enemy fire you could see the anti flak burst coming from the ground and the tracer bullets coming up it was almost impossible to avoid everything so you were lucky just to take some machine-gun plan six ready warning right as his c-47 enters the drop zone eight kilometers from the French coast 21-year old Don Jake way prepares for the most terrifying moment of his young life the jumpmaster stood there the door and if you froze Midori arrows to shoot you soon when we jump the boats were going up you can hear this like going through your chute do you know the Germans are there and the moment you jump in as a paratrooper you're surrounded and scared to death 821 c-47s fly in the first wave astonishingly all but 21 of them deliver their human cargo to the drop zone and return home safe including bud rice the plane took a lot of hits I was very fortunate I think that safe and sound had no problem Don Jake way goes on to spend nearly eight months fighting his way through occupied Europe before being shot by a Nazi sniper at a hospital in Belgium he encounters an old friend I can see the c-47 there was a hospital ship it all boxing wordid for every man killed during the invasion at least three are wounded eight thousand on d-day alone now the same c-47s that delivered paratroopers into battle become flying ambulances often using roughly improvised air strips the plane they called the goony bird evacuates three-quarters of a million wounded men from all over the world there was no sustained air transport Enterprise that enabled the Axis powers to supply their forces routinely in the way that the Allies did thanks largely to the c-47 the c-47 would also leave a lasting legacy on military strategy when NATO responds to a crisis how does it do so it does so with modern airlift capability and that modern airlift capability is rooted in the experience of the c-47 and the Dakota back in the Second World War even though the last dc-3 was built in 1946 there are still hundreds of working dc-3 in the air it is the only pre-war aircraft still flying commercially Rob Bali and here's dc-3 deliver cargo to Catalina Island off the coast of California it's very cool that this thing survived it's a testament to the airplane that it survived this long I know it's a really good designed airplane so I feel privileged to get to fly something like this it's a piece of history Rob moves 1,300 tons of freight every year whatever the conditions it's very controllable with difficult crosswinds it's right there for you the whole way down as long as you treat it right despite being 69 years old his dc-3 is still a rugged and economical cargo plane that's the good thing about the dc-3 can move stuff for not a lot of money back in 1945 thousands of surplus military aircraft are being sold off for scrap but the c-47 gets a new lease on life its speed range and ruggedness make it the plane of choice for a new era of global air travel it was the demobilized c-47s and Dakota's now back in civil service that enabled the expansion of air transport all around the world it became an iconic global air lifter the reborn dc-3 proves the perfect plane for small regional airlines to spread affordable air travel to every corner of America into Europe and an awful lot of airlines picking the United States but around the world now could buy for a very low price a real first rate airplane by 1946 there are 1500 dc-3s flying primarily short haul routes all over the globe the DCT was entering the second generation was no longer the primary airplane on most airline but it was ideal for local service routes in getting it out anywhere thousands of ex service pilots are arriving home to their small towns across the US looking for jobs many of them will take to the skies again this time for peaceful purposes now the dc-3s cost next to nothing you can start an airline for next to nothing and with some luck turn it into a viable airline quite a few did that and that introduced flying to thousands more people because now I was more affordable yet even as the peacetime Civil Aviation boom gathers pace the dc-3 is again called to assist in a new conflict threatening the globe On June 24 1948 Stalin fires the first salvo of the Cold War the Soviets mount a blockade of Berlin cutting off supplies to the sectors of the city under allied control the aim to starve the people into submission and annex the city as conquerors the Russians are treating the Germans were the calculated severity duel and enemy people in the British sector one young Berliner lives with her parents and two younger sisters when the blockade begins Stephanie plum is just 16 years old they closed a lot they closed the series they closed everything conditions were very bad we had just gone so a war and really Berlin was demolished the main power station is in soviet-controlled East Berlin leaving locals at the mercy of the Russians whenever they felt like it they shot the electricity off the water off there was not enough food the children were the first ones to go the situation is bleak but what the Berliners don't know is that the Allies are hatching a rescue plan and at its heart is the c-47 June 1948 Berlin the Soviets are blockading all food supply routes into the cities allied controlled sectors 2 million Berliners are on the brink of starvation my little sister pied all the time card because she was hungry and all we gave her was water like many other Berliners Stephanie plum is driven to desperate measures in the apartment we were living in there were reams of white tissue paper I found them what a find so we ate the tissue paper with a little water the washes art you know Americans would give us up no they didn't they didn't the Allies mount an airlift of unprecedented scale to fly an essential supplies and break the blockade with their three ton payload the c-47 and the dakota are the obvious choice to lead the charge on June 26 1948 the first c-47s land in Berlin we heard the planes coming they said what are they gonna do they're bringing food what's going on a plane lands every 30 seconds the Allies ship in thousands of tons of coal food soap drinking water milk and medical supplies Stephanie plum disobeys her parents to go and see the Allied planes at Tempelhof Airport the Germans came like ads when a plane landed cleaned it out took everything out fuel in and the plane went off at this went on 24 hours never was there a stop constantly in sander storms in the rains going sideways and foggy skies no landing lights the sky was for a year never without planes but bringing salvation to so many is not without sacrifice there are 25 plane crashes during the airlift pilots must navigate a narrow flight corridor under constant harassment from Soviet planes flying dangerously close on July 25th 1948 ac-47 smashes into a building as it is landing killing both American pilots they were still carrying the wreckage off and the Germans put up a little memorial plaque in all 101 airmen and civilians lose their lives ferrying in the supplies the airlift continues non-stop for nearly a year by the time the humiliated Soviets lift the blockade in May 1949 the c-47s and their successors c-54s had clocked up 150 million kilometers it's an astonishing achievement these planes came to feed us and to be good to us we never forgot what was done to us by the Americans it was so beautiful and it still is the c-47 goes on to see further conflict in Korea and even in Vietnam where it's the oldest military plane in service but by the sixties its visionary creator is ready to hang up his slide rule one day Donnell Douglas went to a meeting with with an airline about a new model and he looked around the table and all of them are accountants and lawyers there are no engineers there no scientists or no visionaries and the fun went out the world was aging around him and changing it he didn't care for it to the wall numerous aircraft design is trying and fail to create a replacement for the dc-3 it's dubbed the holy grail of airplane design but nothing can match the versatility rugged reliability and economy of the dc-3 the engineers the designers at the time knew they knew a great deal they also knew they did not know a great deal so they made their claims then a lot stronger and I'll and a bit heavier than that we would today but because of that the likes of the dc-3s are still flying almost unbreakable the dc-3 story spans more than two-thirds of the entire history of powered flight it's an airplane that wins the hearts of all those who flown her it was wonderful it's wonderful plane to fly it very easier to fly and I've seen him come in with holes in the wings the motor shot out everything else that c-47 one of the best airplanes is ever built the dc-3 makes Global air travel routine accelerating the rise of the industrial economies dc3 makes the point to the flying public that it's safe and comfortable to fly and makes the case for the airlines that they can actually make money many argue that no other single airplane has left such a broad and lasting legacy on air transportation if we take a look at it transport how it evolved right up in the area of the jumbo jet at the heart of all that is the experience with the Douglas dc-3 back in the 1930s and the 1940s it is truly the linchpin of American and global transport the genius and hard work of engineers at Douglas Aircraft Company created a standard of modern airplane design that fundamentally changed the way large airplanes are built right up to the present day there's a little bit of the dc-3 and every airplane that flies today no matter where they are plane comes from Oh
