(Douglas) World Cruiser @·AIRCRAFTUBE

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Douglas World Cruiser

The Douglas World Cruiser, (or DWC) was developed to meet a requirement from the U.S. Army Air Service for an aircraft suitable for an attempt at the first flight around the world. The Douglas Aircraft Company responded with a modification of their DT-2 torpedo bomber. Five of these aircraft were ordered for the round-the-world flight, one for testing and training and four for the actual expedition.

The DWC differed from the DT in having a greater fuel capacity for greater range: the capacity went from 115 gallons in the DT-2 to 644 gallons for the DWC. Other changes included using a different vertical tail with extra bracing struts beneath the tail and bringing the pilot's and flight mechanic's cockpits closer together to improve communication between the two. The DWC retained the DT-2's 420-hp Liberty V-12 engine but two different-sized radiators were included, the larger one for use in the tropics. Finally, the DWC's undercarriage was designed to be easily changed from wheels to floats for operations from land or sea. The prototype, built in 45 days at a cost of $23,721, was delivered to the Army for evaluation in November 1923. Soon after, Douglas received a contract for four production aircraft.

On March 17, 1924, four DWCs and their eight crew members left Clover Field, Santa Monica, Calif., for Seattle, Wash., the official starting point. While in Seattle, Boeing employees exchanged the planes' wheels for pontoon floats for the long over-water portion of the flight. It was also in Seattle that the planes were formally named for four major American cities, representing north, south, east and west geographical areas of the continental United States. The "Boston", "Chicago", "New Orleans", and "Seattle" took off from Sand Point on Lake Washington, Seattle on April 4, 1924 for the expedition around the world.

One plane, the "Seattle", needed repairs and remained behind with its crew. When it was fixed and the crew attempted to catch up with the other three planes, it crashed in the fog on April 30 into an Alaskan mountaintop. The crew, Major Frederick L. Martin and Staff Sergeant Alva L. Harvey, survived and made their way through the wilderness to the city of Dutch Harbor. The other three aircraft continued on through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, relying on a carefully planned logistics system, including 15 pre-positioned spare engines, 14 extra sets of floats and duplicates of all airframe parts to keep the aircraft flying.

Avoiding the Soviet Union, which had not given permission for the planes to cross, they crossed Korea, the coast of China, Hong Kong, Indo-China, Thailand, Burma, and reached Calcutta, India, in June. The floats were replaced with wheels and the expedition proceeded to the Middle East and then Europe. They arrived in Paris on July 14 - Bastille Day. The DWCs departed Orkney Island in Scotland on July 30, again as seaplanes.

The Boston was forced down on August 3 in the middle of the Atlantic. The crew was rescued and reunited with the Chicago and New Orleans on September 3 in Nova Scotia, Canada. Their aircraft was damaged beyond repair while being recovered by the U.S. Navy light cruiser USS Richmond.

The remaining two aircraft continued across the Atlantic back to the United States, where they soon were joined by the test aircraft, now christened Boston II. The aircraft returned to their Seattle starting point on September 28, 1924, 23,942 nm (or 44,342 km) and 175 days since departing. They had logged 27,553 miles in six months and six days, with an actual flying time of 371 hours. They had touched down in 28 countries and had crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The Chicago is now part of the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, on display at the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington D.C.; the New Orleans is in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History; the wreckage of the Seattle was recovered and is now on display in the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum; the original Boston sank in the North Atlantic, and it is thought that the only surviving piece of the original prototype, the Boston II, is the aircraft data plate, now in a private collection.

The success of the DWC established Douglas Aircraft Company among the major aircraft companies of the world and led it to adopt the motto "First Around the World - First the World Around". The company also adopted a logo that showed aircraft circling a globe, replacing the original winged heart logo. This logo evolved into an aircraft, a rocket, and a globe and was adopted by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation following the merger of Douglas and the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in 1967, and then became the basis of the logo of the Boeing Company following its acquisition of McDonnell Douglas in 1997.

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This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Douglas World Cruiser of Wikipedia ( authors )

Specifications (World Cruiser)

  • Crew: two (pilot and flight mechanic).
  • Length: 35 ft 6 in (on wheels) and 39 ft (on floats) (or 10.82 m / 11.89 m).
  • Wingspan: 50 ft (or 15.24 m).
  • Wing loading: 9.9 lb/ft² (on wheels) and 11 lb/ft² (on floats) (or 48.3 kg/m² / 53.8 kg/m²).
  • Height: 13 ft 7 in (on wheels) and 15 ft 1 in (on floats) (or 4.14 m / 4.6 m).
  • Wing area: 707 ft² (or 65.68 m²).
  • Empty weight: 4,380 lb (on wheels) and 5,180 lb (on floats) (or 1543 kg / 1825 kg).
  • Loaded weight: 6,995 lb (on wheels) and 7795 lb (on floats) (or 3173 kg / 3536 kg).
  • Maximum speed: 103 mph (with wheels) and 100 mph (with floats) (or 166 km/h / 161 km/h).
  • Range: 1,998 nm (with wheels) and 1,433 nm (with floats) (or 3700 km / 2655 km).
  • Service ceiling 10,000 ft (with wheels) / 7000 ft (with floats) (or 3050 m / 2135 m).
  • Powerplant: One Liberty V12 engine.
  • Power: 420 hp (or 313 kW).
  • Power/mass: 16.7 lb/hp (on wheels) / 18.6 lb/hp (on floats) (or 10.2 kg/kW / 11.3 kg/kW).

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This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Douglas World Cruiser of Wikipedia ( authors )
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