Douglas DC-3/C-47/C-117 family
If there is one iconic transport aircraft it must be the Douglas DC-3 and all of its derivatives and predecessors. Even nowadays they continue to be in active service, either in original configuration or completely rebuilt. Although the military version was officialy named Skytrain, it is mostly known by its British name, Dakota.
Starting with the DC-1, Douglas created its first all metal passenger transport aircraft. Key features of the family that followed are the wings with slightly swept leading edges and non-swept trailing edges. The horizontal stabilisers have similar features. The engines are placed in the wing's leading edge. The nose is quite short. Both single wheel main gears retracts forward in the nacelles. They have two fork-shaped struts, one to hold the weight and one to retract it. Normally it has rectangular cabin windows, but there can be variations. The same applies to the cockpit windows: normally there are six of them, but sometimes only four.
The aircraft was license-built in Russia as the Lisunov Li-2. Similarly Shōwa L2D and Nakajima L2D were the Japanese versions.
Looking at the wing shape is one of the ways to recognise the Douglas DC-3 family from similar aircraft. The leading edges are swept outside the nacelles, the trailing edge is not swept.
The short nose is also characteristic for the DC-3 family. Note that many versions have six cockpit windows, but there are also examples with just four: large front and smaller side windows.
Different versions
How to recognise the different versions of the Douglas DC-3 family will be added later.
Confusion possible with
Boeing 247
Douglas' main competitor was Boeing, which made model 247 as its first all metal low wing transport aircraft. The Boeing 247 is smaller, but has a longer nose than the Douglas aircraft. It also race track shaped cabin windows. Moreover, the wing leading edges are not swept and the trailing edge of the vertical fin is rounded.
Lockheed L-18
Lockheed also made all metal passenger aircraft, but these were initially smaller. Only with the L-18 Lodestar, the size became similar to that of the DC-3 and Boeing 247. The main differences compared to these aircraft are the H-tail, the relatively small cockpit windows and mid-wing configuration.
Vickers Viking
The British answer to the Dakota - more or less - was the Vickers Viking. Typical for the Viking is the constant diameter fuselage from cockpit to tail. The part of the fuselage in front of the wings is relatively large. The main gear retracts rearward in the nacelles. (photo: Ken Fielding/WikiMedia)
Curtiss Commando
Of all aircraft types mentioned here the wing shape of the Commando is most similar to that of the Douglas aircraft. The fuselage has a much wider diameter though, with a double-bubble cross section, and a streamlined nose.