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It was in September 1935 that United's Patterson went to competitors with his appeal: "United we fly, divided we los.e money." Six months later United, Transcontinental & Western Air, American, Eastern and Pan American signed a contract, crux of which was that for 18 months none of them would invest in any four-motored air transport between the gross weights of 43,500 lb. and 68,500 lb., other than DC-4. These lines advanced Douglas comparatively little for the experiment. Nine-tenths of the expenses, which DC-4 will have to pay back by selling itself,* have come out of the well-filled Douglas sock. None of these lines is bound by contract to buy a single DC-4, and presumably will not, unless the plane comes up to all its specifications. And 18 months in the aviation business is a long ime. Early in 1937 T. W. A. and Pan American ordered nine Boeing 307s (Flying Fortresses with transport fuselages), which weighed just under the contract limit. Indications now are that the finshed 307 will weigh 45,000 Ib. Last week American, having waited out the 18 months, was on the verge of tumbling for six 307s. The Boeings will be ready for airline service before the Douglas plane. T. W. A., Pan American and American all protest that they are still behind the co-operative idea, but Mr. Patterson is naturally uneasy.
Plans to Plane. To see that his plane does come up to specifications' is Donald Douglas' job. Primarily a designer, he can and does fly a plane on occasion, but he doesn't like flying very much. What he does like, besides sailing, is building planes for other men to fly. DC-4 was the work of scores of experts, the result of the most intricate plans ever drawn for a single plane. But, though Douglas himself did not drive a single one of the 1,300,000 rivets in DC-4's skin & bones, he knows exactly where each one is and why it is there, knows how many hours and minutes it would take to replace them.
The experimental DC-4 which will take to the air next week is really the fourth DC-4. First was a "mock-up"—a full-sized wooden replica, exact in every detail, for a study of space requirements, load placement, general structure. DC-4 No. 2 was a perfect scale model, with 8 ft. 3 in. wingspan. This Lilliputian transport "flew" through 1,100 hours and $25,000 worth of wind tunnel tests at the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at Caltech. Third stage was a Spanish Inquisition by Douglas engineers, who systematically squeezed, banged, shook, stretched, heated, froze, destroyed every part, every material. They built huge testing machines many times as valuable as the part they were testing. In the end the experts were satisfied that every inch of the plane could stand twice as much stress as would ever be brought to bear. Fourth DC-4, fruit of this triple experimenting, represents $992,808 for labor and engineering, $641,804 for materials and overhead.
Donald Douglas, having spent all this money, has his fingers crossed. If DC-4 does what is expected in its test flights, it will be just another good Douglas product. If it fails, Donald Douglas will somehow have made the second crucial mistake of his life. The first was perhaps the most fortunate accident which has ever befallen commercial aviation.