My Favorite Passenger Airplanes

Some sources say that, when today's aircraft are retired, two planes that have been flying for many more years than any others will fly their crews home: the DC-3 and the DC-9. I believe it. 

United Airlines DC-3 Douglas Sleeper Transport. The upper windows gave light and views to people sleeping in the upper berths. DC-3s without berths had only the windows seen in the colored band. (Bill Larkins. Creative Commons 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons)  

The DC-3 (Douglas Commercial-3) has been flying since 1935. Yes! For 87 years. It began as a sleeper transport, flying passengers from coast to coast. Seats made into berths like those on trains. Before the advent of the DC-3, flying from coast to coast required three days. With the DC-3, travel time was cut to 17 hours. Big improvement. In the daytime configuration, it carried 21 passengers in seven rows, in a 2-1 configuration. 

World War II intervened, and DC-3s were stripped of their passenger accoutrements and converted for use carrying paratroopers. More were built with a side-loading cargo door and were used to transport cargo.  These became known as C-47s. In all, more than 10,000 DC-3/C-47s were built.

The DC-3 made her mark with the D-Day Invasion of Normandy, when she carried paratroopers across the English Channel, to France. They were led by a DC-3 known as "That's All Brother." She is still flying today, now with the Commemorative Air Force, and returned to France in 2019, the 75th anniversary of the invasion, to fly in lead position in the re-enactment of the D-Day Invasion. 

Today, the DC-3 is still being used to supply outlying areas in Canada, South America, and Africa with needed supplies and, also, to provide transportation to residents of those areas. 

A Delta Airlines DC-9 in 1970s livery

(Photographer unknown, public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

The DC-9 has been flying since 1965, for 57 years. It was developed to serve regional air travel following the huge success of larger, international planes, such as the DC-8. It met even greater success than those and has been enlarged and otherwise modified from the DC-9-14 through the DC-9-95. The DC-9-80 through DC-9-95 are known as the MD-80 through the MD-95, reflecting Douglas Aircraft Company's merger with McDonnell Aircraft Company in 1967.  The DC-9-95 has been known as the Boeing 717 since McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in 1997.

Confused? You won't be after you watch this video showing Delta Airlines' last DC-9 taking off from Atlanta on its last revenue flight before settling into its new home at the Carolina Aviation Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzP3HT7f2tA

This presents bare introductory information on two of my three favorite airplanes. The third? The Lockheed C-141 StarLifter. We'll talk about her another day. After all, she deserves a page of her own.