Category: Douglas DC-4

Poor Sailor's Airline: PSA 1949-1958

21/7/2025

Pacific Southwest Airlines, or PSA for short, was one of the great postwar US airline stories and it is forever associated with the smiles that adorned its aircraft from the late 60s onwards. The grinningbirds, as they were known, made travel throughout California affordable for millions, but prior to the smiles PSA had already shook up the airline scene on the US West Coast.

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Ezra & Nehemia: Operation Ali Baba

24/8/2017

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Following the transport of the Yemenite Jews, as part of the Magic Carpet operation, there were still further 'opportunities' for Jewish migration to the new Israeli state. Alaska Airlines was not however able to take part in these operations directly, following its fall from grace with the CAB and subsequent fines. Israel still needed a vehicle by which it could transport refugees, ideally one not tainted by a direct Israeli connection and therefore able to operate out of Arabic countries. Out of this was created NEAT.

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On the Wings of Eagles: Operation Magic Carpet

23/8/2017

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Following the creation of the modern state of Israel on May 14, 1948 there was a huge influx of Jews from around the world to their new country assisted by the Jewish Agency for Israel. These included not only holocaust survivors and wealthy Jews from around the world but also entire communities of Jews from Arab majority countries and elsewhere. One of the most famous of these mass migrations was that which is popularly known as Operation Magic Carpet and Alaska Airlines had a prominent role to play.

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Alaska to the World: Alaska Airlines Postwar Adventure

21/8/2017

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The history of Alaska Airlines is diverse and prior to deregulation usually one of a rather ramshackle operation struggling to get by. In fact the airline went through a series of different phases associated with its different owners and during the late 1940s briefly became the largest charter airline in the world with a risky, and somewhat illegal, strategy to get itself into profit.

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Nighthawks to CBS Eyes: Capital Airlines

12/5/2015

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Capital Airlines operated for 34 years between 1927 and 1961 and through the 1950s was the 5th biggest airline in the United States in terms of revenue passenger miles. That made it bigger than Delta, Braniff, Continental and Northwest yet today it is largely forgotten. That is despite the fact that the airline introduced coach services and pioneered turboprop operations with the superb Vickers Viscount. Sadly the Viscounts would in the end be one of the factors that brought the airline to its knees and by the 1960 it was on borrowed time.

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Piston Roos: Long Serving Qantas DC-3s and DC-4s

25/4/2015

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Qantas has been renowned for being on the cutting edge of long-haul travel with the best equipment: Connies in the 1950s, 707s in the 1960s and 747s in the 1970s. Along with that is a reputation for safety that is second to none. However even during the regulated era Qantas wasn't just a long haul airline as it had duties to perform closer to home. These involved using more primitive equipment well into the 1970s in the form of Douglases stalwart C-47/DC-3 and DC-4s.

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Postwar Skymasters Pt2: US Trunk DC-4s

26/3/2015

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As discussed in part 1 the DC-4 (or more accurately the C-54 and R5D) was the mainstay of the postwar fleets alongside the staggeringly successful DC-3. Though the big four (American, Eastern, Trans World and United) had far and away the largest share of the US scheduled market the other trunk airlines also had important roles and as would be expected all operated the trusty Skymaster too. In addition Pan Am was also in need of stopgap lift as the war ended and the C-54 would fill that role well as well as becoming the backbone of the Berlin Airlift in 1951.

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Postwar Skymasters Pt1: DC-4s at the Big Four

26/3/2015

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The Douglas DC-4 originated from the unrelated first DC-4 (which was renamed the DC-4E) that had proved too complicated and lacking in performance prior to World War Two. The advent of the war interrupted the new DC-4s use as a commercial airliner and after the first prototype was constructed nearly 1,170 came off the production lines for the military in a large number of variants. The basic types were named the C-54 Skymaster (for the USAAF) and the R5D (for the US Navy).

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Poor Sailor's Airline: PSA 1949-1958

Ezra & Nehemia: Operation Ali Baba

On the Wings of Eagles: Operation Magic Carpet

Alaska to the World: Alaska Airlines Postwar Adventure

Nighthawks to CBS Eyes: Capital Airlines

Piston Roos: Long Serving Qantas DC-3s and DC-4s

Postwar Skymasters Pt2: US Trunk DC-4s

Postwar Skymasters Pt1: DC-4s at the Big Four

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