Douglas World Cruiser

[fitter]

Welcome,

About a year ago I asked in this thread: Douglas World Cruiser? what's next with the project - because the topic is interesting.
Since I didn't receive a response, I started the project myself and at the beginning I present to you two renderings of the entire model. The model was developed in such a way that it can be glued on floats or wheels, with one of the two types of radiator and one of the four planes taking part in the round-the-world flight.
I am currently gluing the second pre-model in which I want to make folded wings. More information in the next posts so as not to reveal everything at once

[umtutsut]

I'm in for one when available, depending on scale. 1/48? 1/33?

Les

[Don Boose]

A historic airplane!

Don

[fitter]

umtutsut - scale, like most of my models, is 1/33

First, a little history of the aircraft:

The Douglas World Cruiser (DWC) was developed to meet the US Army Air Force's requirements for an aircraft suitable for the first around-the-world flight attempt. The Douglas Aircraft Company responded with a modified variant of its DT-2 torpedo bomber, which the company had built for the Navy. Five aircraft were ordered for the round-the-world flight: one for testing and training and four for the actual expedition.
Compared to the DT-2 on the DWC, the fuel system has been completely redesigned to increase capacity from 115 gallons on the DT-2 to 644 gallons on the DWC. Other changes included the use of a different vertical tail with additional struts under the tail, and bringing the cockpit of the pilot and flight engineer closer together to improve communication between the two. DWC retained the 420 hp Liberty V-12 engine used in the DT-2. Two different sized coolers are included, the larger one (with louvers) for use in the tropics. In addition, the DWC landing gear was designed to be easily changed from wheels to floats (for land or sea operations). The prototype, built in 45 days at a cost of $23,721, was delivered to the Army for evaluation in November 1923. Soon after, Douglas was awarded a contract for four production aircraft.
To be continued

Today the skeleton of the fuselage and the engine. All in all, it's not much about the skeleton - it's ship-made.
However, the engine deserves attention, because it is one of the most respectable aircraft engines. The 420 hp Liberty V-12 engine is the same engine that also powered the first plane to fly across the Atlantic, the Curtiss NC-4, and the first plane to fly non-stop across the United States, the Fokker T-2. Unfortunately, despite a highly simplified, but fairly faithful representation, in the final result you will not see much of it.

[-Jim G]

Nice work! The Douglas World Cruisers are very interesting subjects. Thank you for taking this on. I am eagerly watching your progress.

[RyanShort1]

I'm glad you finally tackled this. It's a worth subject.

[yankeekilo]

very nice model!!! i'm following your thread

[fitter]

The story continues:

The success of the World Cruiser enhanced the international reputation of the Douglas Aircraft Company. Following the flyby, the Army Air Service ordered six similar aircraft as surveillance aircraft, retaining the interchangeable wheel/float landing gear, but with much less fuel and two machine guns on flexible mounts in the rear cockpit. Initially, these aircraft were designated DOS (Douglas Observation Hydroplane), but in May 1924 they were renamed O-5. On March 17, 1924, four DWCs and their eight crew left Clover Field in Santa Monica, California, for Seattle, Washington, the official launch point. While in Seattle, Boeing employees replaced the aircraft's wheels with pontoon floats for the long portion of the flight over water. Also in Seattle, planes were formally named after four major American cities, representing the North, South, East and West geographical areas of the continental United States.

On April 6, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans took off from Sand Point on Lake Washington for the first leg of their long flight. As a result of fog, the Seattle crashed on April 30 into a mountainside in Alaska. After 10 days of marching through the frozen wilderness, the crew of two made it safely to Dutch Harbor. The other three DWCs continued their flight with the help of 15 extra engines, 14 extra float kits, and duplicates of all airframe parts stored at various locations around the world.



The next stage of construction: the interior of the cabin. Unfortunately, there are few materials, so I followed what I found and hence the modest and simplified interior.

[Sakrison]

Thank you, Fitter! I've been waiting years for someone to produce a kit of this aircraft.
I can't wait to build it.

[fitter]

Sakrison - the subject is interesting, like all planes of the era of great flights and rallying. It is a pity that more popular among designers are, for example,the next versions of well-known fighters from World War II :(

The story continues:
On June 26, the expedition reached Calcutta, India, where the floats were replaced with wheels. DWC left Orkney, Scotland on 30 July, again as seaplanes. On August 3, after nearly three-quarters of the flight time, "Boston" made a forced landing in the mid-Atlantic. The crew was rescued and reunited with "Chicago" and „New Orleans” September 3 in Nova Scotia, Canada. Two days later, the DWC prototype, now named Boston II, joined the group in Newfoundland for its original crew to complete the flight. September 28 as the planes returned to Seattle.

In six months and six days, they covered 27,553 miles (44,342 km) with an actual flight time of 371 hours. They landed in 28 countries and crossed the Atlantic and Pacific. The flight was the greatest feat in aviation up to that time and earned Douglas Aircraft Co. motto "First Around the World".


As the hull was already equipped with the engine and cabin, the sheathing was applied. The photos show the first pre-model that did not meet the requirements and was stripped of the skin Only the radiator in the narrower version was left.