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List of original DC-3 operators

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A DC-3 with Wright Cyclone engines, built in 1938 for Australian National Airways

The List of original Douglas DC-3 operators lists only the original customers who purchased new aircraft.

With the availability of large numbers of surplus military C-47 Skytrains or Dakotas after the Second World War, nearly every airline and military force in the 1940s and 1950s operated the aircraft at some point. More than eighty years after the type's first flight, in the second decade of the 21st century the Douglas DC-3 is still in commercial operation.

Commercial operators

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Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Czechoslovakia
France
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Kenya
KLM - in pre-war (1939-1940) orange for easy detection for fighter planes, as a neutral country
Netherlands
Japan
Pakistan
Peru
Romania
Russia
Sweden
Switzerland
The first DC-3 series aircraft built was this Douglas Sleeper Transport (DST). Seven DSTs were manufactured for American Airlines before the first DC-3 rolled off the production line.
This DC-3 was delivered to Eastern Air Lines on 7 December 1937 and on its retirement from Eastern service in December 1952 was donated to the National Air and Space Museum.
A Transcontinental & Western Air DC-3 in 1941
United States

Business and Executive operators

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United States

Military operators

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Nicaragua
Sweden

The RSwAF operated two second-hand ex-AB Aerotransport DC-3 aircraft for SIGINT purposes. One was shot down on June 13 1952 on a secret mission outside the Baltic coast by Soviet fighters. All eight in the crew perished.

In 2003, the wreck was located and salvaged. It now resides in the Air Force Museum.

United States

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Assembled and sold by Fokker

References

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  1. ^ Berry 1971, p.28
  2. ^ a b c Berry 1971, p.29
  3. ^ Berry 1971, p.22
  4. ^ a b Berry 1971, p.30
  5. ^ "Case Study the Indian Scene, circa 1975". 20 August 2018.
  6. ^ Berry 1971, p.32
  7. ^ a b c d Berry 1971, p.24
  8. ^ a b Best Air-Britain Archive Spring 2008, pp. 25–26
  9. ^ Pearcy (1987), p.29
  10. ^ a b c d e Berry 1971, p.27
  11. ^ a b Berry 1971, p.26
  12. ^ Berry 1971, p.23
  13. ^ a b Berry 1971, p.34
  14. ^ O'Leary (1992), p.69
  15. ^ Berry 1971, p.33
  16. ^ a b Berry 1971, p.37
  17. ^ Forman 2005 p.69
  18. ^ a b Berry 1971, p.35
  19. ^ Berry 1971, p.31
  20. ^ Berry 1971, p.25
  21. ^ Berry 1971, p.38
  22. ^ Pearcy (1987), pp. 101-105
  23. ^ Berry 1971, p. 43

Bibliography

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  • Peter Barry, ed. (1971). The Douglas Commercial Story. Air-Britain Historians.
  • Best, Martin S. (Spring 2008). "The Development of Commercial Aviation in China: Part 5A: Japanese Airlines in Occupied China and Manchuria". Air-Britain Archive. pp. 17–31. ISSN 0262-4923.
  • O'Leary, Michael (1992). DC-3 and C-47 Gooney Birds. Osceola, Wisconsin: Motorbooks International. ISBN 0-87938-543-X.
  • Pearcy, Arthur (1987). Douglas DC-3 Survivors. Bourne End, Buckinghamshire: Aston Publications. ISBN 0-946627-13-4.
  • Forman, Peter (2005). Wings of Paradise. Barnstormer Books. ISBN 978-0-9701594-4-1.