Douglas Aircraft Company aircraft types

Douglas A-4 Skyhawk

A-4

Small, light, tough: for decades the A-4 Skyhawk was the US Navy’s pocket-sized bomber. Today it flies mostly with civilian training companies, including in Germany. Here is how to recognize it and how its story went.

Douglas C-54 Skymaster

DC-4

The C-54 Skymaster was the long-range workhorse of the US armed forces and the backbone of the Berlin Airlift. Here you find the military versions, their history as the Candy Bomber and the examples that still stand or fly today.

Douglas DC-2

DC-2

All-metal, retractable landing gear, two radial engines: in 1934 the Douglas DC-2 made the modern airliner an everyday proposition and, as the KLM Uiver, finished on the podium in the London–Melbourne race. Here is how to recognize the DC-3’s little sister – and where to find it today.

Douglas DC-3 / C-47

C-47 Skytrain

Two radial engines, a tailwheel, a fuselage that sits at a slant on the ground: the DC-3 and its military sister the C-47 are legends. Here is how to recognize them and how to find the last flyers in Europe.

Douglas DC-4 / C-54 Skymaster

C-54 Skymaster

Four radial engines, a single vertical stabilizer, nosewheel landing gear and round windows: the DC-4 and its military version, the C-54, carried the Berlin Airlift. Here is how to recognize the classic and find the last examples.

Douglas DC-6

DC-6

Four radial engines, a pressurized cabin, nosewheel landing gear: after World War II the Douglas DC-6 was one of the most important long-range aircraft in the world. Today it still flies as a freighter in Alaska – and as the polished bare-metal DC-6B of the Flying Bulls from Salzburg. Here is how to recognize it and how to get it in front of your lens.

Douglas DC-7

DC-7

Nonstop across the US, across the Atlantic without a stop and over the North Pole to Tokyo: the Douglas DC-7 was Douglas’s fastest and last piston airliner – and also its shortest-lived. Here you learn how to tell the DC-7, DC-7B and DC-7C apart and where to find the rare survivors today.

Douglas DC-8

DC-8

With the DC-8, Douglas entered the jet age: four engines, a swept wing and later a fuselage of over 57 meters. Here you read how the series differ, why the Super Sixty became so famous and where you can still catch one of the last DC-8s.

Douglas DC-9

DC-9

The DC-9 was the last airliner built under the old Douglas name – and the seed of a family that runs all the way to the Boeing 717. Here you can read how the short-haul jet was developed, what sets the Series 10 to 50 apart and how the MD-80 grew out of it.