Douglas aircraft you can see
| Type | First flew | Built | UK museums |
|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas C-47 Dakota | 1935 | ~16,000 | 9 |
| Douglas A-20, A-26 & Martin B-26Havoc/Boston, Invader, Marauder | 1938 | c.15,300 | 2 |
| Douglas Skyraider & Curtiss HelldiverSB2C Helldiver, Skyraider AEW.1 | 1940 | c.10,300 | 2 |
Douglas in brief
The DC-2 of 1934 and DC-3 of 1935 made the company’s name. The DC-3 served as the military C-47, known to the RAF as the Dakota. In the Second World War Douglas built almost 30,000 aircraft, including the A-20 Havoc, SBD Dauntless and A-26 Invader. Its workforce reached 160,000. After the war came the DC-6 and DC-7, then the DC-8 jetliner in 1958.
Production problems and DC-10 development costs strained its finances. On 28 April 1967 Douglas merged with McDonnell Aircraft to form McDonnell Douglas. The Long Beach plant built its last aircraft, a C-17, in 2015.
Museums holding Douglas aircraft
| Museum | Douglas types | Adult entry | Airframes | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wings Aviation MuseumHaywards Heath, West Sussex | 3 | £13 | 25 | The Wings Museum near Balcombe displays Eastern Front and D-Day aircraft archaeology in crash-site dioramas — raw, unpolished and… |
| Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight Visitors CentreLincoln, Lincolnshire | 1 | £12.50 | 11 | Lancaster PA474 — one of only two airworthy Lancasters on Earth — when she's home (she periodically visits Duxford for deep maintenance,… |
| Boscombe Down Aviation CollectionSalisbury, Wiltshire | 1 | £13.50 | 49 | The Lancaster cockpit reproduction tour, and a test-and-evaluation pedigree collection you can physically inhabit rather than admire… |
| Boxted Airfield MuseumColchester, Essex | 1 | Donation | 1 | Boxted flew Marauders, Mustangs and the 56th Fighter Group's Thunderbolts; the Nissen-hut museum holds a substantial B-26 fuselage… |
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 1 | £21 | 97 | Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 1 | £29 | 146 | Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| Metheringham Airfield Visitor CentreLincoln, Lincolnshire | 1 | £8 | 2 | Metheringham Airfield Visitor Centre (106 Squadron Lancasters) has original ration-book atmosphere plus a fully restored Dakota you can… |
| Romney Marsh Wartime CollectionRomney Marsh, Kent | 1 | £8 | 5 | The Romney Marsh Wartime Collection at Brenzett: a former Women's Land Army hostel stuffed with locally dug aircraft archaeology from the… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 1 | Free | 78 | TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| South Yorkshire Aircraft MuseumDoncaster, South Yorkshire | 1 | £7.50 | 109 | Doncaster's South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum sprawls across the old RAF Doncaster site: dozens of airframes and helicopters, strong… |
| Yorkshire Air MuseumYork, North Yorkshire | 1 | £17 | 54 | Halifax 'Friday the 13th' — the world's only complete Halifax reconstruction, honouring the type that flew from this very field —… |
Frequently asked
Is the Dakota a Douglas aircraft?
Yes. The Dakota was the RAF name for the C-47, the military version of the Douglas DC-3.
When did Douglas merge with McDonnell?
On 28 April 1967, forming McDonnell Douglas.
What was the first flight around the world?
In 1924, by Douglas World Cruisers, modified from the Douglas DT.