The Douglas DC-3 Changed Aviation Forever

The first flight of the Douglas DC-3 series turned modern air transport into reality.

Friday, December 17, 2021 at 12:48 PM ET

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The first DST, NX14988, took flight on December 17, 1935—though no image was captured of the airplane’s initial test run. Courtesy: Douglas Aircraft Company

Key Takeaways:

In 1935, Donald Wills Douglas delivered the Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture, celebrating the success of his DC-2 aircraft in establishing viable commercial passenger air service and predicting future aviation advancements like autopilots and remote navigation.
The Douglas DC-2, an improvement over the DC-1, significantly advanced commercial aviation by setting transcontinental speed records and demonstrating superior passenger capacity and design compared to competitors.
Fueled by a crucial order from American Airlines, Douglas quickly developed the larger and more advanced Douglas Sleeper Transport (DST), which later became known as the DC-3.
The first DST made its routine yet historically significant test flight on December 17, 1935, exactly 32 years after the Wright Brothers' inaugural flight.

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In the shadow of the original Wright Flyer, at 9:15 p.m. on May 30, 1935, in London, England, Donald Wills Douglas delivered the 23rd Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture—so named for one of the brothers who had successfully launched powered, controlled, piloted flight nearly 32 years earlier.

How the Flyer came to hang in what is now the Science Museum for 20 years is a fascinating story all its own—it was placed there by Orville Wright in 1928 during his ongoing feud with the Smithsonian Institution in the U.S. The Flyer was only given to the Smithsonian in 1948 following Orville’s death.