Design and Development
The United States Army Air Forces commissioned the DC-6 project as the XC-112 in 1944. The Army Air Forces wanted an expanded, pressurized version of the popular DC-4 based C-54 Skymaster transport with improved engines. By the time the renamed XC-112A flew, the war was over and the USAAF had rescinded its requirement.
Douglas converted its prototype into a civil transport (redesignated YC-112A, having significant differences from subsequent production DC-6 aircraft) and delivered the first production DC-6 in March 1947. However, a series of mysterious inflight fires (including the fatal crash of United Airlines Flight 608) grounded the DC-6 fleet later that year. The cause was found to be a fuel vent located adjacent to the cabin cooling turbine intake. All DC-6s in service were modified to correct the problem and the fleet was flying again after just four months on the ground.
Read more about this topic: Douglas DC-6
Famous quotes containing the words design and/or development:
“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“Every new development for the last three centuries has brought men closer to a state of affairs in which absolutely nothing would be recognized in the whole world as possessing a claim to obedience except the authority of the State. The majority of people in Europe obey nothing else.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)