The DC-4E

In 1935 at the age of 35, William Patterson, President of #UnitedAirlines commissioned the  Donald Douglas of Douglas Aircraft Company in Burbank, California to create aircraft more ambitious than the yet to be released DC-3.  Patterson wanted four-engine transport about twice the size of the DC-3 that could carry 42 passengers by day or 30 by night. The new plane had to have complete sleeping accommodations, including a private bridal room.  United Airlines had Stewardesses the first American Airline to do so.  Other airlines such as #AmericanAirlines, #EasternAirLines, #PanAmerican Airways and Transcontinental and Western Air (T#WA)  joined United, providing $100,000 each toward the cost of developing the new aircraft.

Standing on a aircraft, the DC-4 featured auxiliary power units, power-boosted flight controls, alternating current electrical system, air conditioning, and cabin pressurization.  It’s three low vertical stabilizers meant it could fit into existing hangars. The DC-4 could take off with only two engines on one side operating.  Like the DC-3, the DC-4 had Dihedral angle wings but had a swept leading edge and almost straight trailing edge.  The four 1,450 hp (1,080 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-2180-A Twin Hornet 14-cylinder air-cooled radials were all mounted with noticeable toe-out, particularly the outer pair.

Despite all these innovations, the buyers felt the DC-4 underperformed.  It was too heavy and the advantages did not justify the additional maintenance cost.  The plane did not go into production and Douglas sold the prototype to  Imperial #Japanese Airways a year later only to lose the aircraft in crash in Tokyo Bay.  Nakajima reverse engineered the wreckage for a bomber that would have had a range of 2,200 miles and a 20,000 lb pay load never got built.



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