An estimated 160 to 400 Douglas DC-3 aircraft are still flying today, serving roles from sightseeing tours and freight to air shows and skydiving.
When you visit the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, and at its Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, you expect to see relics of a bygone era. From the original Wright Flyer to the space shuttle Discovery, visitors can view decades of aviation history in one go. What they may not realize, however, is that some of the planes on display are still in use and in the skies. The Douglas DC-3 is one of them.
Introduced by the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1935, the DC-3 entered airline service in 1936. It was built to compete with Boeing’s 247, which could carry 10 passengers and 400 pounds of cargo. The DC-3 was larger, more comfortable, and could carry 21 passengers. This may seem laughable by today’s standards, as modern passenger jets can carry hundreds of people, but in those early days of commercial flight, it was considered a revolutionary passenger plane.
There are a few innovations from the 1930s that we still use today, like the electric razor and Scotch tape, but you don’t see many Ford DeLuxe Roadsters on the road anymore. While no one is using the DC-3 for regular passenger operations, there are an estimated several hundred still flying today. Estimates vary by source: In 2013, Smithsonian Magazine reported that at least 400 were still in the air, while more recent counts put the number closer to about 164 airworthy DC-3s worldwide.
