Canadair North Star
| North Star | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| BOAC DC-4M-4 Argonaut G-ALHS "Astra" at London Airport (Heathrow) in September 1954 | |
| Role | Passenger and cargo transport |
| Manufacturer | Canadair |
| First flight | 15 July 1946 |
| Introduction | 1946 |
| Retired | 1960s (RCAF), 1975 (last civil operator) |
| Primary users |
Trans-Canada Air Lines Royal Canadian Air Force Canadian Pacific Air Lines BOAC Flying Enterprise |
| Produced | 1946 - 1950 |
| Number built | 71 |
| Developed from | Douglas DC-4 |
The Canadair North Star was a 1940s Canadian development of the Douglas C-54 / DC-4 aircraft designed for Trans-Canada Air Lines - TCA. Instead of radial piston engines found on the Douglas design, Canadair used Rolls-Royce Merlin engines to achieve a higher cruising speed of 325 mph compared with the 227 mph of the standard DC-4. Requested by TCA in 1944, the prototype flew on 15 July 1946 and the type was used by various airlines and by the RCAF. It proved to be reliable but noisy when in service through the 1950s and into the 1960s. Some examples continued to fly into the 1970s, converted to cargo aircraft.
Canadair Aircraft Ltd. took over the Canadian Vickers Ltd. operations on 11 November 1944. Besides the existing Consolidated PBY Canso flying patrol boats in production, a development contract to produce a new variant of the Douglas DC-4 transport was still in effect. The new Canadair DC-4M powered by Rolls-Royce Merlin engines mounted in Rolls-Royce Universal Power Plant (UPP) installations emerged in 1946 as the "North Star." More than just an engine swap, the North Star had the Douglas DC-6 nose, landing gear and fuselage shortened by 80 in (2 metres), DC-4 empennage, rear fuselage, flaps and wing tips, C-54 middle fuselage sections, wing centre- and outer-wing panels, cabin pressurisation, a standardised cockpit layout and a different electrical system.
Canadair built 71 examples under the designations: North Star, DC-4M, C-4 and C-5. With the exception of the single C-5 (which had Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engines, as fitted to the Douglas DC-6), these variants were all powered by Rolls-Royce Merlin engines and 51 of the production examples were pressurized.
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Wikipedia