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Douglas DC -3
TM
Douglas DC -3
Build
Douglas DC -3
Build
12
Pack
Paints and
modelling tools
A comprehensive selection of modelling tools
and paints (in all the colours you will need to
complete your Douglas DC-3) is available from
the Model Space website.
www.model-space.com
Produced under license. PAN AM logos are trademarks of
Pan American World Airways, Inc.
Produced under license. Boeing, Douglas, Boeing Airplane Company, DC-3,
247, Douglas World Cruiser, and the distinctive Boeing logos, product markings
and trade dress are trademarks of The Boeing Company.
Published in the UK by De Agostini UK Ltd,
Battersea Studios 2, 82 Silverthorne Road,
London SW8 3HE
Published in the USA by De Agostini Publishing USA, Inc.,
915 Broadway, Suite 609,
New York, NY 10010
Packaged by Continuo Creative, 39-41 North Road,
London N7 9DP
p275-282 images from the Giorgio Apostolo Collection
All rights reserved © 2015
Items may vary from those shown.
Not suitable for children under the age of 14.
This product is not a toy and is not designed or intended for use in play.
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Pan American
The company and the DC-3
™
Among the many airlines that
adopted the DC-3 over the years,
Pan Am remains one of the most
distinguished. With the DC-3, the
company opened the gateway to
South America, and established
itself as a model of efficiency
and professionalism.
ASSEMBLY GUIDE
Finishing your model
Complete the final steps and
add the finishing touches.
275
283
Page
™
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Pan American – The company and the DC-3
Pan American
The company and the DC-3
Among the many airlines that
adopted the DC-3 for their fleets
over the years, Pan Am remains one of
the most distinguished.
On 14 March 1927, three Air Corps
majors – Henry Arnold, Carl Spaatz and
John H. Jouett – founded Pan American
Airlines. They wanted to create a rival
to SCADTA, the Colombian-German
air transport company that had been
operating in South and Central America
since 1920.
After little more than a year, Pan
American had merged with two other
companies to secure connections
between South America and the United
States, creating a powerful union
of interests and skills. The Aviation
Corporation of the Americas (ACA)
had been founded by 28-year-old Yale
graduate Juan Trippe in June 1927,
with the backing of Cornelius Vanderbilt
Whitney and the future ambassador and
Secretary of State for Trade, William A.
Harriman. The Atlantic Gulf & Caribbean
Airways company (AGCA) was created
by New York investment banker Richard
Hoyt in October 1927.
On 23rd June 1928, the ACA, AGCA
and Pan Am merged. Hoyt became the
president of the ‘New Aviation Corporation
of the Americas’, and Pan American
Airways was an operating subsidiary, with
Juan Trippe as its operational head.
The cover of the first Pan
American Airways schedule,
from January 1928. The
company served the Key
West to Havana route at a
cost of $50 each way. The
planes used were three-
engine Fokker F-7As,
as shown in the picture.
Between January 1928
and May 1929, the network
of destinations served by
the company extended to
Nassau, Port au Prince,
Santiago and San Juan. For
each of these destinations,
Pan Am received a
contribution of two dollars
per mile from the US
government for carrying mail
for the postal service.
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A new network
With the merger of the three companies,
the focus of Pan American Airways turned
to South America, where its network of
destinations expanded rapidly, especially
following the acquisition of contracts for
the transporting of mail, and the take-
overs of numerous small local companies
that were often in financial difficulty.
During 1929, Pan Am opened links with
Colombia and Venezuela and, by the end
In 1933, during the period
covered by this map, Pan
Am and its subsidiaries
already served a wide range
of destinations in Central
and South America. The
agreement of 1929 with the
United Aircraft and Transport
Corporation had allowed the
company, thanks to solid
support at a political level, to
concentrate exclusively on
international routes.
With the Sikorsky S-40 (above), Pan Am
introduced the name ‘Clipper’ for its prestige
planes. In line with the company’s image, the
name suggested the fast sailing ships that plied
ocean routes in the 19th century. The choice of
name was a success – ‘Clipper’ subsequently
became the company’s call sign and ‘Clipper
Club’ was adopted as the name of the VIP rooms
available at major airports served by Pan Am.
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276
Pan American – The company and the DC-3
of the year, with Peru; the following year it
extended its services to Argentina (Buenos
Aires), Chile and Brazil, in that case
through its subsidiary Panair do Brasil.
During this period, the transcontinental
routes were served by Sikorsky S-38
and S-40 seaplanes. The latter – the
flagships of the fleet – were named
American, Southern and Caribbean
Clippers: the name ‘Clipper’, synonymous
The Martin M-130 Hawaii Clipper (registration
number NC14714, shown here), entered service
in 1936, but disappeared at sea on 28 July 1938,
while flying between Guam and Manila, with the
loss of six passengers and nine crew members.
Between 1938 and 1945, three of Pan Am’s
M-130s were lost due to serious accidents. Besides
the Hawaii Clipper, the Philippine Clipper (NC14715)
crashed in the mountains of Northern California on
21 January 1943 with the loss of 19 people, and
23 people died when the China Clipper (NC14716)
sank on landing near Port of Spain (Trinidad &
Tobago), on 8 January 1945.
This colourful poster
shows the huge range of
destinations covered by Pan
Am and the scope of leisure
aviation in the interwar years.
It also promotes the speed
of the service compared to
rail travel. ‘We’ve had boat
trains’, the poster declares,
‘now here’s the plane train’.
Pan Am was seen as the
fastest and most convenient
way to escape the harsh
North American winter and
reach a cornucopia of exotic,
sunny destinations.
with speed and elegance, was taken up
as the call sign of the company and given
to several seaplanes that served between
1931 and 1946.
1929 was a defining year for Pan Am.
It joined forces with the Grace Shipping
Company (a division of the chemical giant
W.R. Grace & Co.) to form Pan American-
Grace Airways (Panagra), a joint venture
that continued to operate along the routes
of South America until its acquisition by
Braniff International in 1967.
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3277
One of the elements that came to define
the public’s image of Pan Am was its
loyal, glamorous and talented staff. More
than with other airlines, Pan Am’s pilots
and stewardesses were identified with the
airline and its guarantee of quality, so the
selection process was rigorous.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Pan Am pilots
were required, in addition to a technical
knowledge of the aircraft itself, to know
the principles of long-distance flight,
aviation and maritime regulations,
docking and mooring operations, radio
communications and maintenance of
the aircraft. They had to know what to
do if they were required to ditch the
aircraft, how to land in adverse weather
conditions, and navigation techniques,
including dead reckoning and exploiting
marine currents. The pilots’ abilities were
particularly put to the test on Pan Am’s
longer routes and the potentially dangerous
intercontinental flights.
The selection of cabin crew was
equally rigid. The minimum age of a Pan
Am air hostess was 21, the maximum
was 32. The candidates were selected
for their ‘good looks and poise’ and –
until the 1970s – had to be unmarried
with no children, and not divorced. The
standard of beauty imposed on them and
the level of service demanded on board
contributed – especially in the 1950s and
60s – to establishing the reputation of the
approachable but supremely professional
Pan Am stewardess.
The company’s reputation was further
strengthened by sightings of celebrities
among the passengers, and Pan Am took
pride in the fact that they were the airline
of choice for politicians and movie stars.
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt was one
of the first, travelling to the Casablanca
Conference in 1943 on a Pan Am-crewed
Boeing 314, the Dixie Clipper.
An important aspect of the Pan
Am experience was its service on
the ground. As this advert boasts,
on ‘foreign soil’ – at destinations
served by the airline – you were
met by an English-speaking Pan
Am representative who ensured
that passengers felt ‘at home
abroad.’ The advert shows the
slogan ‘The System of the Flying
Clippers’, and the logo, with the
initials PAA on the wing and the
globe rotated to show the Atlantic,
dates the image to between the
mid-1940s and early 1950s.
Pan Am Staff
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278
Pan American – The company and the DC-3
Transpacific service
Also in 1929, the company entered into
an agreement with the United Aircraft and
Transport Corporation (a conglomerate
comprising, among others, Boeing™,
Sikorsky, Pratt & Whitney and United
Airlines) to operating domestic routes
within the United States.
On 21 October 1936, the China
Clipper was launched as the first
transpacific passenger service between
San Francisco and Hong Kong, with
stopovers in Honolulu (in fact, at Pearl
Harbor), Midway, Guam, Wake, Manila
and Macao.
The following year, a connection
across the Atlantic between Ireland and
The reopening of the routes to Europe after World War II strengthened the position of the airline on the
intercontinental market and, once again, the image of the Pan Am Clipper defined the perfect trip, whether
for work or pleasure, to the other side of the Atlantic. However, as this American advert pointed out to
potential travellers in 1946, there were acute shortages of food and accommodation in England.
Twelve Boeing B-314 planes
were bought by Pan Am
between 1938 and 1941 to
add to its Clipper family. Each
plane could carry 74 passengers
by day and 36 as a sleeper,
in addition to the 11 crew
members (of which two were
cabin attendants). Nine of the
planes were named: Honolulu Clipper, California Clipper, Yankee Clipper,
Atlantic Clipper, Dixie Clipper, American Clipper, Pacific Clipper, Anzac
Clipper and Cape Town Clipper. The remaining three were transferred
from Pan Am to BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) and were
given the names Bristol, Berwick and Bangor. In the course of World War
II, all nine Pan Am Clippers were requisitioned for US military use, five for
the Navy and four for the Air Force.
Boeing B-314 ‘Clipper’
Newfoundland was inaugurated. In
1939, the New York (Port Washington)
to Southampton flight was launched
to compete with Imperial Airways.
In the same year, flights from New
York to Marseille, along with those
from New York to Lisbon, did much
to consolidate the name of Pan Am on
intercontinental routes.
Build Douglas DC
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3279
Pan Am and DC-3:
A short love story
In the years before World War II, Pan Am
became known as the model of efficiency
and professionalism. In a rapidly changing
market, it invested a lot of resources in
increasing the routes it covered and on
the consolidation of their image.
The uniform of the Pan Am pilots,
inspired by that of the staff of the
Merchant Marine, soon became a
distinctive feature. The fact that the
company did not operate on domestic
routes within the US influenced technical
choices regarding the kind of equipment
used and the training of staff. Unlike the
other major US companies, in the early
1940s, Pan Am’s fleet consisted of only
two DC-2s, six DC-3s and one Panagra
DC-3. By comparison, Eastern Airlines
had nine DC-3s, American Airlines had
13 DC-2s and 44 DC-3s, TWA had 14
and United Airlines had 30. It was only
after the war that Pan Am bought the
twin-engine Douglas™ on a large scale.
Approximately 90 planes were acquired
from post-war surplus, which enabled
the company to catch up with the
competition, although in most cases, the
planes were assigned to subsidiaries all
over the world, as had happened before
the war with the DC-2s that Pan Am
This Pan Am DC-3,
registration NC33613, was
delivered by Douglas to
Pan Am in May 1941 and
subsequently transferred
to its subsidiary, Aviación
de Cubana. In May 1945,
Cubana inaugurated the
first permanent connection
between Havana and Miami
with its own DC-3s. Despite
Pan Am purchasing military
surplus DC-3s after the end
of World War II, the number of
these aircraft in its fleet was
limited, compared to those of
other major US carriers.
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280
Pan American – The company and the DC-3
The Lockheed Constellation
was one of the aircraft that
symbolised intercontinental
travel in the late 1940s and
the 1950s. Both in the L-749
version and as the L-049
(Super Constellation), it played
an important role in the Pan
Am fleet. The L-749 Clipper
America flight was inaugurated
on 17 June 1947, becoming
the first round-the-world
service (Pan Am Flight 001).
It flew from San Francisco to
New York via Honolulu, Hong
Kong, Bangkok, Delhi, Beirut,
Istanbul, Frankfurt and London.
The Pan Am Flight 002
followed, taking the same route
in reverse, from New York to
San Francisco. Pictured left
is the Lockheed L-049, serial
number N88832, the Clipper
Flora Temple, delivered to Pan
Am on 19 February 1946 and
later sold to the subsidiary
Panair do Brasil.
bought up from other companies. At a
time when the company was expanding
its fleet of twin-engined aircraft, the US
air transport industry was already making
the transition to four-engined planes.
From January 1950, Pan Am became Pan
American World Airways Inc. and began
its own transition. But the company was
no stranger to technological advances.
In 1940, Pan Am had commissioned the
first commercial aircraft with a pressurised
cabin (the Boeing B-307 Stratoliner) and,
in 1947, sent the first plane around the
world, the L-749 Constellation Clipper
America, which travelled from San
Francisco to New York the long way round
until 1950.
In January 1946, a Pan Am DC-3 could
fly between Miami and Buenos Aires in 71
hours and 15 minutes. The following year,
a DC-4 could fly between New York’s
Build Douglas DC
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3281
From its outset, Pan Am encompassed a
large network of subsidiaries, operating in
many countries around the world. These acted
as links between the parent company and the
various local routes, in addition to operating
directly on some international connections.
In 1958, these subsidiaries included:
Mexico Airways
Mexican Airline Company
National Airline of Colombia
Venezuelan Airways (Avesa)
Afghan Airlines (Ariana)
Panamanian Aviation Company (Copa)
Costa Rica Airlines (Lacs)
Nicaragua Airlines (Lanica)
Bolivian Airlines
Panair do Brasil
Honduras Airways (Sahsa)
Until 1949, these subsidiaries also included
the China National Aviation Corporation
(CNAC), formed as a joint venture with the
Chinese government, who controlled 55%
of the capital. After the establishment of the
Republic of China in 1949, the Civil Aviation
Administration of China continued to be
a subsidiary.
Pan Am’s subsidiaries
An advertising sticker of
Compañía Mexicana de
Aviación S.A., one of the
many affiliates of Pan
Am in South America,
showing a DC-3 in the
background. Many twin-
engine Douglas planes
saw service – under
different liveries – with
subsidiaries of Pan Am,
often shifting from one
company to another
in a tangle of different
registrations.
Idlewild (since renamed
John F. Kennedy
International Airport) and
Buenos Aires in 38 hours.
The introduction of the DC-
7B, in 1958, brought travel times
down to 25 hours and 20 minutes (22
hours and 45 minutes if connecting via
Panama and Lima).
However, for Pan Am and its many
subsidiaries, the era of the DC-3 was
ending. In the 1950s, the DC-3’s place
in the Caribbean and
South America was
taken by the Convair
240, while the Curtiss
C-46 was widely used for
cargo. Despite increasingly
active lobbying, Pan Am was now
being challenged by a growing number
of competitors, and the twin-engine
Douglas was threatened with becoming
an anachronism as aviation entered
the jet age.
The Douglas DC-7B Clipper Jupiter Rex (which inherited the name of an earlier L-049) was acquired in 1950
with the assets of American Overseas Airlines and later resold to the British company BOAC. Produced
between 1953 and 1958, the DC-7 was the last passenger aircraft with piston engines made by Douglas
in Santa Monica before the transition to jet engines. The plane shown here (serial number N777PA) was
acquired by Pan Am on 25 May 1955, and sold by the Empire Aircraft Company on 21 September 1964.
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282
Assembly Guide
Finishing your model
Take the wings of the aeroplane. Fill and sandpaper any defects between the upper and lower
cladding pieces of the leading edges.
Mask the wings, leaving the leading edges exposed as shown in the photographs.
Paint the leading edges dark grey, the same colour that was used to paint the upper surface of
the nose and the upper leading edge of the tail. Leave to dry.
Take pieces S95G and S95D and fit them to complete the left and right wing tips respectively.
Use PVA glue to fix these pieces.
1 2
3 4
Finishing your model
S95G
S95G
N.B. Some elements supplied with each pack, in particular the sheets of
laser-cut plywood parts, may not look exactly the same to those in the
step-by-step photographs. But, of course, the individual assembly pieces
included within the laser-cut plywood parts will have exactly the same
shapes, sizes and descriptions as those shown here.
See the back cover for a checklist of your parts for this pack.
Build Douglas DC
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3283
Assembly Guide
Take pieces C73G and C73D and complete the front lights of
the left and right wings respectively as shown. Use white glue
to attach these pieces.
Continue attaching the strip around the inner edge of the wing,
forming it to fit by hand.
Cut a strip 218 x 3mm from the sheet of aluminium for the
cladding. Trim it to fit, then glue it to the edge of the inner
surface of the left wing, as shown in this step and subsequent
ones, making sure that it projects 1mm beyond rib A13.
Continue gluing the strip along its entire length. Repeat the
operation on the right wing with another strip of the same size.
Here is the aluminium strip in place on the inner edge of
the wing. Once the strip is positioned correctly, apply a little
cyanoacrylate glue to the underside of it.
Take pieces C12 and C15 supplied with Packs 5 and 2.
Apply a thin coat of primer and paint the outer sides chrome,
as you did the other parts of the fuselage. Leave to dry.
65 7
1098
C73D
A13
C12 C15
218mm
3mm
1mm
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284
Assembly Guide
Finishing your model
Mask the outer side of the doors. Apply a thin coat of primer
and paint the inner sides aluminium, preferably using an
airbrush. Leave to dry.
In the same way, mount the access door to the passenger
cabin (see Pack 5).
Using the paper templates supplied with Pack 2 and this
pack, attach the labels to the inner side of the access
doors of the aircraft as shown in the photograph. Use
PVA to attach the labels, and leave to dry.
Now fit the left wing. If you are putting lights in your model,
complete the electrical connections, making sure the wires join
as shown, red to red, black to black, and carefully follow steps
16, 53, 55 and 56. Otherwise ignore these steps.
Mount the access door to the crew cabin (see Pack 2).
Insert the electrical connectors into the central section of the
wing and connect the wooden pegs.
1211 13
161514
Build Douglas DC
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3285
Assembly Guide
1817 19
222120
Finally, mount the left wing. You can apply glue to the joints,
or you can leave them as they are so that the wings will be
removable. Do not apply any glue at the moment. Repeat the
operation to mount the right wing.
Glue the two pieces completed in the previous step to the
outer sides of both engine fairings, as illustrated.
Take pieces SD57 and SD58 supplied with this issue. Paint
the second propeller and its cone, following the instructions
in the Assembly Guide of Pack 1.
If you have fitted both nuts on each of the propeller screws,
remove the second nut. Mount one of the propellers as
illustrated, with the flat part of the central hub facing forward.
Take pieces C60, the engine exhausts. Remove
any burrs, apply primer and paint the pieces brown,
preferably using an airbrush. When the paint is dry,
apply black paint to the insides.
Fit the second nut. Tighten it slightly and check that the
propeller rotates freely. Secure the second nut with a drop of
cyanoacrylate glue.
SD57
SD58
C60
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286
Assembly Guide
Finishing your model
2523
24
Complete the propeller by fitting the cone to the centre.
Repeat the operation to complete the second propeller. Both propellers are now mounted and can rotate.
Build Douglas DC
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3287
Assembly Guide
Take piece C56. Remove any burrs, apply primer and paint it
chrome, as with other parts of the fuselage. Leave to dry, then
paint the inside of the piece black. Mount it as shown in the
photograph above.
Also adjust its width, so that it fits perfectly.
Take piece C63, which is the ceiling of the passenger cabin.
Position the stringers as shown. Remember that you must file
the notches, if necessary, to make sure that the outer edges
of the stringers are flush with the piece.
The photograph shows the ceiling piece in position – sandpaper the part until it fits the opening perfectly. Remember that aluminium
cladding will be applied, which must be flush with the cladding of the surrounding pieces.
With sandpaper, prepare the cabin ceiling so that it fits
perfectly into the empty space in the upper part of the
fuselage. Adjust the piece for length.
2726 28
3029
C56
C56
C63
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288
Assembly Guide
Finishing your model
Cut a piece of aluminium cladding 218 x 43mm for the ceiling
and prepare it with riveting patterns, then glue it in place.
Remove excess cladding projecting beyond the edge of the
ceiling with a craft knife, and sandpaper.
Take piece SD56. Smooth off any burrs, apply primer and
leave to dry. Paint it aluminium, preferably with an airbrush,
and when dry, fix it to the lower part of the assembly prepared
in Pack 2, as shown.
Apply the primer to the underside and along the edges
of the piece prepared in the previous stage, as shown, and
leave to dry. Paint the edges of the piece green and the
underside beige.
Take the photo-etched sheet of the aircraft’s antennae,
provided with this pack. The pieces, except for S20, come in
pairs and are stuck together for added strength.
When the paint has dried, fit the ceiling in position. Do not
glue it. The removable ceiling will enable you to see all the
details of the interior of your model DC-3.
Remove piece S20 from the sheet. Remove the projections
with a file and sandpaper, then, using flat tweezers, bend
the piece very carefully to give it its final shape, shown in the
photograph on the right.
3231 33
363534
SD56
SD56 S20
Build Douglas DC
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3289
Assembly Guide
Remove the remaining antennae from the photo-etched sheet.
Having separated them, smooth them, bend them and glue
them together to increase their thickness.
Mount antenna S23 on the underside of the centre of the
wings, as shown in the photograph. Please note: do not fit
this antenna if the aircraft is going to be placed on the display
stand available for this model.
To mount the antennae, use the tip of a craft knife to make a
small hole at the appropriate point in the fuselage (see next
steps), and secure the metal pieces with a small amount of
cyanoacrylate glue.
Mount antennae S20, S24 and S25 on the upper part of the crew’s cabin (from Pack 2), as shown in the photograph.
Mount the antenna formed by pieces S21-S22 to the lower
part of the pilot’s cabin, just behind the third row of rivets.
3837 39
4140
S21
S25
S24
S23
S23
S25S24S20
S22
S21-S22
30 mm
8mm
5mm
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Assembly Guide
Finishing your model
Take the pieces shown above to complete the tail of the aircraft. Apply chrome paint to all the pieces, following the method described
and previously used for the fuselage. Remember to respect the drying times of the individual painting stages, and handle all the
painted pieces with great care.
Take the tail of the aircraft, which you assembled earlier. Attach
piece C54 to complete the rudder, as illustrated.
In the same way, mount piece C55 to complete the upper part
of the fin.
42 43
44
C55
C44 C46
C47 C45
C54 C48 C49 C54
C55
C57D
Build Douglas DC
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3291
Assembly Guide
Take piece C45 of the elevator. From the 0.8mm diameter
brass rod supplied with this pack, cut a piece that will fit into
the groove on the elevator, as shown in the photograph.
Carefully cut, mark, fit and glue cladding piece C44
onto piece C45.
Take the rod from the previous step and slide it through the
hinge in the tail assembly.
Complete the assembly of the left side of the tail with piece
C48 (see photograph).
From the underside, mount piece C45 as shown above.
Repeat Steps 45 to 49 symmetrically, to complete the right
side of the tail.
4645 47
504948
C45
C45
C44 C48
C46 C47
C49
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