The Douglas DC-3

The Douglas DC-3 is considered by some to be the most successful civil aircraft ever built. The technical innovations included retractable landing gear, wing flaps, variable-pitch propellers, stressed-skin structure, flush riveting and Jack Northrop's multi-cellular wing structure.

When the war began, many commercial DC-3s were pressed into military service as the C-47. These planes were attractive because of their large load-carrying capacity. Their normal range was 1,500 miles, but adding fuel tanks extended the range. The Army Air Forces became the largest purchaser of DC-3 military derivatives, acquiring some 10,000 aircraft.  After the war, a large number of C-47s became surplus and joined the commercial air fleet, seeing use by almost every airline and many militaries around the world.
 

The Museum's DC-3, Serial No. 3269, was rolled out at the Douglas plant in Santa Monica on January 17, 1941, and sold to TWA with Civil Aviation Authority license no. NC 1944. In 1956 the air-craft was transferred to the Union Oil Company (Union 76) and the license was changed to N760.  Union Oil used the aircraft as an executive transport until it was donated to the California Science Center at Exposition Park in Los Angeles. The Science Center loaned the airplane to WMOF in October, 2001.