United Douglas DC-6 Promo Film - 1950

[Music] [Applause] [Applause] this is the story of a few weeks in the life of an airplane a very particular airplane one of the planes which is changing the whole idea of air travel and transport a big reliable Douglas dc-6 this one is recognized by the public as the main liner in New York but she's known to her intimates as United six five three four her story won't really be what you'd call high adventure six five three four is beautiful to look at romantic in these modern times even exciting but the frontier days of air transport are gone forever and six five three four is in the useful business carrying people and their goods from place to distant place swiftly comfortably and with year-round dependability in the past four months six five three four has flown 340 thousand miles carrying sixteen thousand people and 750 tons of cargo from the Golden Gate to Manhattan from Boston to Cleveland from Philadelphia to Portland to Seattle to Denver to Washington she's been in the air at work almost half of the past three thousand elapsed hours but six five three four we'll never grow old you'll always be a new airplane her Fountain of Youth is the company's vast six million dollar maintenance base at San Francisco where 1,900 skilled men and women continually service and improve the airplanes of United's Mainliner fleet here is a prime source of six five three fours dependability almost none of the work on this 1400 hour overhaul is needed now but the base is dedicated to the principle of preventive maintenance and so during the next seven days six five three four will be overhauled with microscopic thoroughness since six five three fours logbook was flown in a couple of days ago most of this work has already been planned and ordered this great overhaul doc the only one of its kind in the world is a remarkable example of modern industrial technology automatic controls raise and lower the huge catwalks which are designed to fit the TC six inch by inch and curve by curve we hear a lot about bigness these days both pro and con but only a big business can provide the big-league maintenance which the modern airplane must hand each one of the hundreds of operations is assigned by written order no operation can be forgotten or overlooked after eight of these major overhauls per every part except the skin will have been replaced six five three four will not only stay new she will improve as newly developed equipment is added the 18-cylinder wasps are among the biggest piston engines now being me carburetor alone is larger than some automobile engine taken apart down to the last bolt and pin each part will go to it's appropriate sub department to be tested then refinish or reef lace when the small parts have been grouped in baskets to ride the overhead conveyor for the five hour trip through the cleaning bank our 2100 horsepower stretch out on a line 60 feet long out in the dark six five three four is being stripped to her bare fuselage and every part subject to the slightest wear is checked by inspectors new slotted flaps about the size of barn doors from it's shorter takeoffs and slower landing speeds the landing gear like all of six five three fours critical equipment as duplicate operating mechanisms one electric and one hydraulic each entirely independent of the other the extraordinary delicacy and precision of a top instrument craftsman can make a watchmaker feel heavy-handed the gyroscope brain of this automatic pilot spins at 18,000 revolutions per minute with parts so small that they're adjusted through a microscope [Music] yet the giant propellers are also so finely balanced that they can be set in motion by the weight of a single paper match an automatic pitch control mechanism shifts gears from climbing to cruising in flight upon landing blades can be fully reversed so that they push against the air stopping the airplane smoothly and swiftly visual and micrometer inspections are supplemented by World of Tomorrow devices which uncover any hidden flaws in orderly ranks the new and renewed parts are conveyed to the final assembly line and once again they begin to assume the form and function of a giant double wasp engine seen here in progressive stages of reassembly it's 18 cylinders equipped with water injection and jet thrust exhaust deliver a maximum of 2400 horsepower when the pilot guns four of these great power plants for takeoff the 9600 horses under his hand drive the dc-6 through the atmosphere with more power than is provided by any locomotive now riding the rail [Music] after being run for five hours in the test cell under conditions far more rigorous than anything ever encountered in actual flight the engines are returned to the dock and now the overhaul draws to a close the hundreds of written orders have been worked checked and signed off the final inspectors have swarmed the plane with flashlights and checklists and found everything in order and on the fifth day six five three four backs out of the dock feeling like a new airplane which she is but there's still another two days of careful scrutiny on the ramp by inspectors who check on the inspectors before she's ready for flight testing during the next four hours the test flight crew will check and recheck the special factors which give six five three for her great dependability those reserves have range altitude speed and power for range her tanks can swallow the whole 4,200 gallons loaded this huge gasoline tank truck giving her the ability to reach a landing place hundreds of miles beyond any scheduled destination or altitude six five three four climbs far above any mountaintop in the entire United States to cruise the smooth upper air far above ordinary weather disturbances the pressurized cabin keeps the inside atmosphere at an easy breathing 7500 feet while the air outside is a thin 19,000 or speed for big engines will proves the dc-6 at better than 300 miles per hour for power the dc-6 requires hardly more than half of its horsepower to achieve this fine performance which means that she can not only fly with three engines but she can keep on climbing and she can maintain your altitude comfortably with any two six five three four ordinarily cruises at only 55 percent of her rated power leaving a comfortable reserve which can be used to maintain normal schedules against adverse wind conditions six five three four okay four flights take her away and six five three four goes back on the line back and forth over United's 13,250 miles of scheduled routes clouds are hanging low over the Los Angeles Airport this winter morning and the rain which drizzles off six five three fours silver shoulders is only a sample of the weather which lies far to the east today six five three four is scheduled for flight 608 the Hollywood eastbound to New York with one stop at Chicago the crew checks in an hour and a half before flight time posted on the weather board the captain finds a broad assortment of detailed data including reports of wind conditions at various altitudes and flight logs from pilots who just flown in over the identical route the meteorologists get new information minute by minute today's ground weather is unfavorable from Denver East but as usual the upper air is clear and smooth at the 19 thousand foot cruising level the copilot computes his gasoline load to carry the plain beyond Chicago to an alternate Airport if need be plus and ample reserve if Archer time comes closer as the airport limousines bring their passengers from the hotels in terminal and as the passengers check-in for their flights it becomes obvious that just about everybody travels by air these days but the captain well remembers that a very few years ago under similar weather conditions this flight would not have left the ground [Music] that's true today lying across the north central plains is a low-pressure area characterized by rough air and strong winds blowing in a counterclockwise direction not long ago unfavorable weather along a single basic route might have canceled the flight nowadays we have many available routes all radio controlled Airways and we can choose the one where the weather is best so today we'll fly our regular course as far as the Grand Canyon to then swing south via Amarillo Texas that those circling winds give us a tailwind boost which will offset the extra mileage tomorrow the storm center will have moved software we'll fly a northerly course the next day we'll be back on our regular route pilots call this pressure pattern flying but it simply beam is that the longest way round is frequently the quickest way hole also the smoothest and the sunniest well it's time to be getting down to the airplane out on the wet ramp six five three four is drinking her breakfast as the flight engineer third man of the crew concludes his nose to tail check of her equipment overhead in the cockpit the captain and co-pilot begin the checking and cross-checking which will go on more or less constantly until they land at Chicago although every instrument and control and dial is second nature to these men each is called off and checked whenever the airplane prepares to leave the ground the ramp agent has collected 49 Gate passes six five three four is traveling pretty full today the two stewardesses will have plenty to keep them busy and somehow it never fails that for every mrs. Bennet embarking on her first flight there's a mr. Bennet relishing the chance to show off his vast experience Los Angeles ground control from United 608 ready to taxi IFR to Chicago United 608 cleared the runway to 5l [Music] [Music] United 608 ready for takeoff United 608 cleared for takeoff climb westbound on the west leg of the LA low frequency range 2 on top report on top Roger 608 clear for takeoff or synchronized throttles damning 9600 horses into action and a scheduled sunshine three miles up Chicago two thousand miles and six and a half hours to the east [Music] when six five three four climbs into the cloud cover a few hundred feet above the field mrs. Bennet would feel much better if she knew that the plane is riding a radio track more sharply marked than a highway route but her uncertainty is momentary because these big airplanes are usually only 15 minutes from sunshine aircraft headed east fly at the odd thousand foot altitudes leaving the even levels cleared for planes flying west so in the captain levels off at nineteen thousand feet six five three four is far above any mountaintop in the United States and clear of airplanes flying in the opposite direction passing Hoover Dam and Lake Mead the co-pilot radios his position and gets in return the latest weather and wind data [Music] anything interesting goes back to the cabins over the PA loudspeakers your attention please this is your captain speaking through the windows on the left side you'll soon be looking down into the Grand Canyon of the Colorado directly below us the dark green triangle is the South Rim of the canyon there you can see the highway to El Tovar Hotel and Bright Angel lodge radio reports indicate we should continue to have only scattered clouds until we're over the divide so there still be quite a lot to see thank you but a thousand miles to the east the clouds are solid not scattered Chicago dispatch expects to bring six five three four in as scheduled but the airline's believe in anticipating every possibility and so the Chicago dispatcher refers flight 608 to base dispatch and payload control at Denver these officers control the movements of every airplane in United's Mainliner fleet as well as the loads they carry 24 hours of every day so out over one of the most extensive private telephone and teletype systems in the world go payloads requests for data on the individual passengers aboard six five three four two Los Angeles reservations which passengers want connections at chicago to chicago reservations which passengers want connections on United for Washington Philadelphia Detroit Boston to Milwaukee Cleveland and Detroit airports can you take care of flight 608 if we divert it to you from Chicago soon the communications net brings back the data on flight 608 every passenger is now known by name and every individuals problem will enter into the final decision payload and dispatch work up their plan for the flight if Chicago ceiling drops below the 300-foot minimum they'll set 608 down at Milwaukee for refueling enroute to New York prearranged transportation will bring her Chicago passengers to downtown Chicago these alternate routing czar planned as a matter of routine procedure actually few of them are used as evidenced by the fact that United's entire fleet operates almost 100% of its schedules it's Meal Time now and six five three four is cruising eastward over the Continental Divide those four thundering engines barely audible through the blankets of fiberglass which soundproof the two big cabins [Music] [Applause] over the Prairie states now riding the beam off toward the Great Lakes [Music] mr. Bennett goes over the speech she's giving tonight while mrs. B settles back for an after-dinner nap beyond the wheatbelt across the Mississippi and is six five three four approaches Chicago the dispatcher radios that the airport is now open your attention please the overcast at Chicago is lifted above the minimum ceiling of 300 feet we're clear to go in through the overcast on a routine instrument approach you may already have seen the instrument landing system illustrated in a booklet on your flight packet you'll notice that two radio beams are projected from the airport runway the glide path is like an electronic highway slanting downward at the correct angle to bring us out at the exact end of the runway the vertical beam called the localizer is the white line in the center of that highway in front of me here the cockpit is a simple instrument which tells the whole story vertical needle warns when the nose strays even a few feet to right or left of the localizer beam the horizontal needle does the same thing if we get a bumper below the glide path to make the perfect approach it's only necessary to keep the needles centered our mile posts are special radio beacons which cause signal lights to flash in the cockpit as we pass over them and marked our distance to the touchdown point though we'll be in the overcast during most of our approach run a radio aides will tell us exactly where we are at all times touchdown on the Chicago runway in the eight minutes thank you every experienced air traveler well remembers when this kind of an overhead would have meant endless circling over the terminal airport while the overworked hour talked down the stacked airplanes at 15-minute intervals but this afternoon planes will touch down in perfect safety no more than three minutes apart for the casual ease and shortness of clear weather the same kind of clouds which concern mrs. Bennet a few hours ago have lost their significance now she understands how the pilots know exactly where they are at all times United 608 calling approach control over aurora at 5500 over roger tonight at 608 cleared to ILS outer marker no delay expected five miles from the field the captain lines up with ILS and the pointers settle down to a steady things wings flat to the glide path nose straight on the localizer six five three four is angled for the exact end of the runway as surely as though she were flying down through an invisible to [Music] the x-ray I of the precision beam radar sweeps the skies pinpointing the position of every airplane in the area within a few feet the radar man monitors all ILS approaches and could talk any of them down if need be [Music] landing gear down [Music] crossing the outer marker United 608 over the outer marker at 0-7 roger united 608 you are now cleared to the chicago tower ILS approach united 608 leaving outer marker end although outside vision is obscured the captain can see perfectly with the aid of his precision instruments airspeed 135 130 125 125 125 125 and there's 6 5 3 4 breaking out of the overcast lined up for a perfect landing as the wheels touch down on the snow-covered runway the pilots pull back the throttle reversing the pitch of the propeller the engines keep running forward but the propeller blades changed from pull to push helping to bring the airplane to a smooth swift stop Chicago after 2,000 miles of sunshine over some of the worst ground weather of the year and on the Midway ramp within five minutes of schedule New York bound passengers will have time to stretch their legs make a phone call or send a wire but despite the nasty weather underfoot the well-coordinated ground crews will have six five three four refueled and stocked with hot meals mechanically checked from nose to tail mail and luggage and cargo handled and stowed and the airplane and her people back in the air within 30 minutes with a fresh crew aboard six five three four is ready for an on-time departure chock up that one to the teamwork of a crack ground crew destination New York six five three four climbs through the overcast from snow to sunshine in 11 minutes by the clock mrs. Bennett and her fellow passengers will be in New York on time once those words would have been a boast now they're just a routine statement of fact for today and every day at air travels peak hour in the late afternoon more than 500 airliners are aloft at once over the United States carrying some 600 tons of cargo and 15,000 passengers swiftly safely and dependably in a thundering tribute to the airlines of America big and small was criss crossing routes are weaving a bright new tapestry of service to the present and promised to the future close up your magazine freshen your lipstick stow those papers in your briefcase straighten your tie we're approaching the airport [Music] [Applause] 9.6 away from Los Angeles via Chicago to York now arriving at gate 3 to close another page in the logbook of United 6 5 3 4 [Music] you

Channel: Classic Airliners & Vintage Pop Culture

Views: 247,937

Rating: 4.8723087 out of 5

Keywords: United Airlines, Douglas, DC-6, DC-7, DC-3, DC-4, SFO, Chicago, Midway, New York, Mainliner, DC-8, Boeing, Stratocruiser, Boeing 247, Classic, Retro, Vintage, Propliner, Jetliner, Pilot, Stewardess, TWA, Delta, Pan Am, Northeast, Travelogue, Air Travel, 1950s, 1950

Id: MiA6K4ZU1b8

Length: 31min 26sec (1886 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 10 2018