Shipbucket

At long last - and with truly great relief - I am finally able to present You with the redraw of the DC-1/-2/-3 family (together with their derivatives and license-built versions).

Initially I planned to do much fewer of them - closer to one-third and definitely no more than half of the amount that eventually turned out, but in the end...
Therefore, due to their amount, I decided to post them in separate thread, rather than the current FD Scale Aircraft thread where they ought to be.

First comes the DC-1 - the plane from which all of it started. First flown in 1933 and built just in single example, after a period with TWA it was eventually sold to Spain where it crashed in 1940.

Douglas DC-1 (USA, Spain)



Next member of the family was the DC-2, which - thanks to stretched fuselage - was capable of carrying 14 passengers instead of 12 in DC-1. 198 were built and sold to number of operators, both civilian and military (in the US Army Air Corps/Force they were designated C-32, C-33, C-34, C-38, C-39, C-41 and C-42 while in the US Navy R2D).

Douglas DC-2, C-32/-33/-34/-38/-39/-41/-42, R2D (USA, Argentina, Australia, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, India, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union, Spain, Switzerland)

Year 1935 saw the introduction of the legendary DC-3 that revolutionized the air transport. Based on previous model but with enlarged fuselage (capable of carrying 21 passengers - or even later in post-war modifications), was initially called DST - Douglas Sleeper Transport as it was originally intended for night flights with sleeping berths instead of typical seats. 607 were built in several variants, many of which were impressed into military service during the war (as C-41A, C-48, C-49, C-50, C-51, C-52, C-68, C-84, R4D-2 and R4D-4).
When the war broke out, DC-3's were replaced on production lines by their military derivatives - C-53 (R4D-3 in the US Navy) - the troop carrier with 'passenger'-style doors and C-47 (R4D) with large cargo doors. 10174 of these were built until 1945 in number of variants, many of which were transferred to allied countries, including Great Britain where they were designated Dakota - which is possibly the most popular name of this ubiquitous plane. After the war huge amount of the surplus C-47/C-53's helped kick-start airline industry in almost every country on Earth, not mentioning that they were also delivered to numerous air forces. Both in civilian and military service Dakotas were used for numerous roles with various specialized equipment and many of them remain in service even today.

Douglas DST/DC-3, C-47/-41/-48/-49/-50/-51/-52/-53/-68/-84/-117, R4D, AC-47 Spooky, EC-47, LC-47 (USA)

Douglas DST/DC-3, C-47/-41/-48/-49/-50/-51/-52/-53/-68/-84/-117, R4D (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, China-Taiwan, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominicana, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece)

Douglas DST/DC-3, C-47/-41/-48/-49/-50/-51/-52/-53/-68/-84/-117, R4D (Great Britain, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Laos, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Rhodesia, Soviet Union)

Douglas DST/DC-3, C-47/-41/-48/-49/-50/-51/-52/-53/-68/-84/-117, R4D (Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Yugoslavia; Afghanistan, Algeria, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Botswana, Burma, Burundi, Cameroon, Central Africa, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Dahomei, Djibouti, Egypt, Fiji, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Hong-Kong, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Jordan, Katanga, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Samoa, Somalia, Sudan, Swazi, Syria, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, Upper Volta, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe)

During the war an attempt was made to convert C-47 into a large assault glider with much higher capacity than dedicated designs then available. Prototype was flown in 1944 and turned out to be a good design, but the demand for such vehicles has already passed and no orders were made, only in 1946 one more C-47 was converted into a glider in field conditions on Philippines and was used for several months as 'aerial train' (coupled with C-54) on Philippines-Japan flights.

Douglas XCG-17 (USA)



While DC-3/C-47 was an enormously successful design, after the war it was noted that some performance improvement would be useful and so the Douglas engineers created a DC-3S (Super) conversion with longer fuselage, larger vertical stablizer, new outward part of the wings and more powerful engines. Flown in 1949 DC-3S failed to meed much interest on commercial market (only one airline ordered them, though in later years more civilian operators used ex-military aircraft of the type) and only the US Navy and US Marine Corps ordered conversion of 100 R4D's to this standard as R4D-8 (later redesignated C-117D).

Douglas DC-3S Super, R4D-8, C-117D (USA, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Philippines)





Introduction of the turboprop engines gave another chance for the upgrade of venerable DC-3's, especially interesting since over time it turned out that while airframes of these aircraft can serve for many years, the supply of engine spare parts was becoming bigger and bigger problem over time. First of turboprop conversions were made already in late 1940s/early 1950s in Great Britain (and they can be seen on Great Britain DC-3/C-47 sheets above), but at that point the engine spares were not yet an issue and these planes were made for experimental purposes.

In the late 1960s the possible market for turboprop DC-3's seemed to be emerging and Conroy Aircraft created such conversion with RR Dart engines, followed by similar upgrade of DC-3S and finally, in 1970s, version with three P&W Canada PT6 engines. These planes, however, failed to attract buyers.

Douglas/Conroy Turbo-Three, Super Turbo-Three, Tri-Turbo-Three (USA)



Much more lucky was turboprop conversion design made by Basler Turbo Conversions, designated BT-67 and introduced in 1990, that besides the P&W Canada PT6 engines incorporated lenghtened fuselage, changes to wings and serious upgrades of avionics. At least 58 were made and sold to number of operators, both civilian and military, including US armed forces (where they are designated C-47T - for which reason the '47' number has been officialy skipped from the new - post-1962 - numbering sequence).

Douglas/Basler BT-67 (USA, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mali, Mauritania, Thailand)




Similar conversion was effected by Braddick Specialised Air Services (BSAS) International, mostly on orders from South African Air Force which in early 1990s still had large numbers of C-47's in service but for political reasons had trouble with obtaining a replacement. Around 40 were modified to that standard, with some being used on civilian market.

Douglas/BSAS C-47TP Turbo-Dak (South Africa)

Success of DC-3 resulted in foreign interest in acquiring license-production rights for the aircraft.

Japan produced these aircraft at Showa and Nakajima plants as L2D (Allied code 'Tabby') from 1939 to 1945 when 487 were manufactured, mostly for military use.

Showa/Nakajima L2D Tabby (Japan)




Much larger number was produced in Soviet Union, initially as PS-84 and later as Lisunov Li-2, with production run of 4937 aircraft (by some sources even 6157). Initially intended as passenger aircraft, they were used in various roles during the war - including as night bomber - and after the war. They were also exported to number of Soviet-aligned countries.

Lisunov PS-84/Li-2 (Soviet Union, Bulgaria, China, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, North Korea, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia)













Ugh... drawing all of it took me over 6 months of my life, so I hope You'll like it (and will post some feedback ).

P.S. To spare you counting:
DC-1 - 2 blanks + 2 painted (total: 4)
DC-2 - 8 blanks + 40 painted (total: 48 - originally was 45)
DC-3 - 41 blanks + 633 painted (total: 674)
DC-3S - 4 blanks + 16 painted (total: 20)
XCG-17 - 0 blanks + 2 painted (total: 2)
Turbo Three - 3 blanks + 4 painted (total: 7)
BT-67 - 2 blanks + 11 painted (total: 13)
Turbo Dak - 2 blanks + 5 painted (total: 7)
L2D - 6 blanks + 8 painted (total: 14 - originally was 12)
Li-2 - 20 blanks + 71 painted (total: 91)

In all: 88 blanks + 792 painted (total: 880 - originally was 875)
(Added 3 x DC-2 and 2 x L2D on 02 December 2017)

I would like to make some comment, but I'm still speechless.

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Wow, excellent work!

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Same here.

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My Worklist
Sources and documentations are the most welcome.

-Koko Kyouwakoku (Republic of Koko)
-Koko's carrier-based aircrafts of WWII
-Koko Kaiun Yuso Kaisha - KoKaYu Line (Koko AU spinoff)
-Koko - Civil Aviation