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Welcome to "All Kind of Airplane on Earth" and Thanks for visiting

Kamis, 17 Mei 2012

DC-7 ( Passenger )

03.07  Moch Fikri Hidayat  No comments

Douglas DC-7



Douglas DC-7
Butler Aircraft Services' DC-7, Tanker 66
Role Airliner/transport aircraft
Manufacturer Douglas Aircraft Company
First flight May 1953
Introduction November 1953
Primary user American Airlines
Produced 1953-1958
Number built 338
Developed from Douglas DC-6
BOAC DC-7C G-AOIC taking off from Manchester UK in April 1958 for a non-stop flight to New York (Idlewild) (later JFK)
A Continental Douglas DC-7B in flight, 1958
Swissair DC-7C in 1961
The Douglas DC-7 is an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. It was the last major piston engine powered transport made by Douglas, coming just a few years before the advent of jet aircraft such as the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8.

Design and development

Pan American World Airways originally requested a DC-7 in 1945 as a civilian version of the Douglas C-74 Globemaster military transport. Pan Am canceled its order shortly afterward; that DC-7 is unrelated to the later airliner.
American Airlines revived the designation when it requested an aircraft that could fly the USA coast to coast non-stop in about eight hours. Robert Rummel (at the time head of engineering at TWA) has stated that pilot union rules limiting flying time to eight hours per day influenced American's request to Douglas.[1] Douglas was reluctant to build the aircraft until American Airlines president C. R. Smith placed a firm order for 25 at a price of $40 million, thus covering Douglas' development costs.
The prototype flew in May 1953 and American received its first DC-7 in November, inaugurating the first non-stop east-coast-to-west-coast service in the country (optimistically scheduled just under the eight-hour limit for one crew) and forcing rival TWA to offer a similar service with its Super Constellations. Both aircraft frequently experienced in-flight engine failures, causing many flights to be diverted.[2]
The DC-7 was followed by the DC-7B, identical except for slightly greater power and, on some DC-7Bs (Pan Am and South African Airways), fuel tanks added in longer engine nacelles. South African Airways used this variant on its Johannesburg to London route.

Operational history

The early DC-7s were only sold to U.S. carriers. European carriers could not take advantage of the small range increase in the early DC-7, so Douglas released an extended-range variant, the DC-7C (Seven Seas) in 1956. Two 5 ft (1.5 m) wing-root inserts added fuel capacity, reduced interference drag, and made the cabin quieter by moving the engines further outboard; all DC-7Cs had the nacelle fuel tanks previously seen on Pan American's and South African's DC-7Bs. The fuselage, which had been extended over the DC-6B's with a 40 in (100 cm) plug behind the wing for the DC-7 and -7B, was lengthened with a similar plug ahead of the wing to give the DC-7C a total length of 112 ft 3 in (34.21 m).
Since the late 1940s Pan Am and other airlines had scheduled some nonstop flights from New York to Europe, but westward nonstops against the wind were rarely possible with an economic payload. The 1049G and DC-7B that appeared in 1955 could make the trip if the headwinds weren't bad, but in summer 1956 Pan Am's DC-7C finally started making the westward trip fairly reliably. BOAC was forced to respond by purchasing DC-7Cs rather than wait on the delivery of the Bristol Britannia. The DC-7C found its way into several other overseas airlines' fleets, including SAS, which used them for cross-polar service to North America and Asia. The DC-7C sold better than its rival, the Lockheed L-1649A Starliner, which entered service a year later,[3] but sales were cut short by the arrival of Boeing 707 and DC-8 jet aircraft in 1958-60.
Starting in 1959, Douglas began converting DC-7 and DC-7C aircraft into DC-7F freighters, which extended the life of the aircraft past its viability as a passenger transport.
The predecessor DC-6, especially the DC-6B, had established, for its time, a reputation for straightforward engineering and reliability. Pratt & Whitney, manufacturer of the DC-6's Double Wasp engines, did not offer an effective larger engine apart from the Wasp Major, which had a reputation of poor reliability.[citation needed] Therefore Douglas turned to Wright Aeronautical for a more powerful engine. The Duplex-Cyclone had reliability issues of its own, and this affected the DC-7's service record and usage. Carriers which had both DC-6s and DC-7s in their fleets usually replaced the newer DC-7s first once jets started to arrive. Some airlines had to scrap their DC-7s after little more than five years of service, whereas the vast majority of DC-6s lasted longer and then sold more readily on the secondhand market.

Variants

DC-7
Production variant, 105 built.
DC-7B
First long range-variant with increased gross weight and increased fuel capacity, with most of the additional fuel in saddle tanks formed by extending the engine nacelles, although not all the aircraft had the additional fuel capacity, 112 built.
DC-7C Seven Seas
Improved long-range variant with a non-stop transatlantic capability, improved 3400hp (2540kW) R-3350 engines and increased fuel capacity mainly in longer wings, 121 built.
DC-7D
Unbuilt variant with Rolls-Royce Tyne turboprop engines.
DC-7F
Freight conversion of all three variants with two large freight doors.

Operators

Main article: Douglas DC-7 operators
DC-7 in Delta Air Lines livery

Airlines

DC-7s were used in airline service for these companies: Aeromexico, Alitalia, American Airlines, BOAC, Braniff Airways, Caledonian Airways, Delta Air Lines, Eastern Air Lines, Japan Airlines, KLM, National Airlines, Northwest Orient, Panair do Brasil, Pan American World Airways, Sabena, SAS, South African Airways, Swissair, THY, TAI, and United Airlines.
In 2010, 17 DC-7s remained on the U.S. civil aviation registry,[4] used mainly for cargo and as airtankers. Due to its engine problems, the DC-7 has not had the same longevity as the DC-6, which is still used by a number of commercial operators.[citation needed]

Specifications

DC-7 cockpit
DC-7 Cockpit - From the display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC

DC-7

Data from American Museum of Aviation[10]
General characteristics
  • Crew: 2 Pilots, 1 Flight Engineer, 2 Flight Attendants
  • Capacity: 64 to 95 Passengers
  • Length: 108 ft, 11 in (33.20 m)
  • Wingspan: 117 ft, 6 in (35.81 m)
  • Height: 28 ft, 7 in (8.71 m)
  • Empty weight: 58,150 lbs (26,376 kg)
  • Max. takeoff weight: 114,600 to 122,000 lbs (51,982 to 55,338 kg)
  • Powerplant: 4 × Wright R-3350-30W radial piston engines, 3,250 hp (2,423 kW) each
Performance

DC-7C

Data from American Museum of Aviation[10]
General characteristics
  • Crew: 2 Pilots, 1 Flight Engineer, 4 Flight attendants
  • Capacity: 105 Passengers
  • Length: 112 ft, 3 in (34.21 m)
  • Wingspan: 127 ft, 6 in (38.86 m)
  • Height: 31 ft, 10 in (9.70 m)
  • Empty weight: 72,763 lbs (33,005 kg)
  • Max. takeoff weight: 143,000 lbs (64,864 kg)
  • Powerplant: 4 × Wright R-3350-988TC18EA1-2 radial piston engines, 3400 hp (2,536 kW) each
Performance

 Military Operators

Orders and production

Airline DC-7 DC-7B DC-7C Notes
Alitalia — — 6
American Airlines 34 24 —
British Overseas Airways Corporation — — 10
Braniff Airways — — 7
Continental Air Lines — 5 —
Delta Air Lines 10 10 —
Eastern Air Lines — 49 —
Japan Air Lines — — 4
KLM — — 15
Mexicana — — 4
National Airlines 4 4 —
Northwest Orient Airlines — — 14
Panagra — 6 —
Pan American World Airways — 6 27
Panair do Brasil — — 2
Sabena — — 10 3 were leased
Scandinavian Airlines System — — 14
South African Airways — 4 —
Swissair — — 5
Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux — — 4
United Air Lines 57 — —
Douglas Aircraft — 2 — Written off before delivery
— 1 — DC-7B prototype delivered to Delta Air Lines
— — 1 DC-7C prototype delivered to Panair do Brasil
Total 102 111 122 Total built: 338    

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