HUGE AIRLINER

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 25, 29 July 1939, Page 11

HUGE AIRLINER

AMERICAN EXPERIMENT

UNDERGEAR A TRICYCLE .

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

NEW YORK. June 21.

The world's largest commercial land : plane, the four-engined, 30-ton, 42-pa*\ senger Douglas DC—4, has been raak-V 1 ing leisurely flights, to demonstrate * ;_ ■ prospective transcontinental service, to -, •be inaugurated next year, making only -~ two stops between the Atlantic and" . Pacific coasts. The plane has been - - turned out, experimentally, at a costof 2,000,000 dollars, as a joint project . , of four national air lines".- The cost, if at least twenty planes are ordered, will be reduced to 425,000 dollars.. A - municipal airport, to accommodate huge airliners of- this type, is being ' built at New York, at a cost of-< 40,000,000' dollars. Of all-metal, low-wing construction, . the plane is 97ft 7in long, has' a wing spread of 138 feet, and an overall,. height of 24ft. It is driven, by four twin-row Pratt and Whitney .engines. . ■ The cruising range, at 190- napes an, hour, with full passenger. capacity, a crew of five, and 30001b of mail* is 1425 miles, or about half the airline- diV, tance across the country. ; ' A tricycle landing gear will enable this great machine to make level land- . ings, and to be handled, according to- ? the manufacturers, as easily on th« ground as planes one-fourthr its svte. \