The Douglas DC-6 was one of the first airplanes to fly a regularly scheduled around-the-world route. With its higher performance, increased accommodation, greater payload and pressurized cabin, it was a natural evolution of the DC-4.
Although the DC-6 had the same wingspan as the DC-4, its engines helped it fly 90 mph faster than the DC-4, carry 3,000 pounds more payload and fly 850 miles farther. The DC-6 could maintain the cabin pressure of 5,000 feet while flying at 20,000 feet.
American Airlines and United Airlines ordered the commercial DC-6 in 1946, and Pan American Airways used the DC-6 to start tourist-class service across the North Atlantic. The 29th DC-6 was ordered by the Air Force, adapted as the presidential aircraft and designated the VC-118. It was delivered on July 1, 1947, and called The Independence after President Harry Truman's hometown, Independence, Mo.
The larger, all-cargo DC-6A first flew Sept. 29, 1949; the larger capacity DC-6B, which could seat up 102 people, first flew Feb. 10, 1951. After the Korean War broke out in 1951, the military ordered DC-6As modified as either C-118A "Liftmaster" personnel carriers, as the Navy's R6D transports or as MC-118As for aeromedical evacuation. Between 1947 and 1959, Douglas built a total of 704 DC-6s, 167 of them military versions. By 1998, the DC-6 was still flying with smaller airlines around the world.
| First flight: | Feb. 15, 1946 |
|---|---|
| Model number: | DC-6 |
| Span: | 117 feet 6 inches |
| Length: | 100 feet 7 inches |
| Height: | 28 feet 5 inches |
| Power: | Four 2,400-horsepower Pratt & Whitney R2800CB engines |
| Weight: | 107,000 pound |
| Operating altitude: | 28,000 feet |
| Range: | 2,990 miles |
| Speed: | 308 mph |
| Accommodation: | 3 crew, 52 to 102 passengers |