Douglas DC-4 - Operational History

Operational History

The DC-4/C-54 proved a popular and reliable type, 1245 being built between May 1942 and August 1947, including 79 postwar DC-4s. Several remain in service as of 2011. An example is Buffalo Airways of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Douglas continued to develop the type during the war in preparation for a return to airline services when peace returned. However, the type's sales prospects withered when 500 wartime C-54s and R5Ds came onto the civil market, many of which were converted into civilian versions by Douglas. DC-4s were a favorite of charter airlines such as Great Lakes Airlines, North American Airlines, Universal Airlines and Transocean Airlines. In the 1950s Transocean Airlines (Oakland, California) was the largest civil operator of the C-54/DC-4.

Douglas produced 79 new-build DC-4s between January 1946 and the cessation of production on August 9, 1947. Pressurization was available as an option, but all civilian DC-4s (and C-54s) were built unpressurized.

Purchasers of the new-build DC-4s included Pan American Airways, National Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Western Airlines in the USA, and KLM Royal Dutch Air Lines, Scandinavian Airlines System, Iberia Airlines of Spain, Swissair, Air France, Sabena Belgian World Airlines, Cubana de Aviación, Avianca, Aerolíneas Argentinas, Aeropostal of Venezuela (1946) and South African Airways in overseas markets. New-build DC-4s were used by several airlines to start their first scheduled transatlantic flights between Latin America and Europe. Among the earliest airlines to do so were Aerolíneas Argentinas (1946), Aeropostal of Venezuela (1946), Iberia Airlines of Spain (1946), and Cubana de Aviación (1948).

Basic prices for a new DC-4 in 1946-7 was around £140,000-£160,000 per-aircraft. In 1960 used DC-4s were available for around £80,000.