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=============== Series: LOST AND FOUND: historic propliner ==============
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Canadair CL-2 Northstar (DC-4M-2)
Registration: CF-TFB, sn 126
TCA - Trans-Canada Air Lines (1937 - 1965)
(Callsign: Air Canada)
All-new plane by Harry Follas based on DC-6b by Harry Follas and Tom Gibson
Original textures by Tom Gibson, bare metal textures by Harry Follas
Flight Model by Brian Horsey
Sounds by Mike Hambly,
mhambly@SurClaro
MDL-file modified for night light textures and night light textures added by Hans U. Hermann (Germany)
E-mail: virtual.birds@gmx.de
Facts and figures research: Hans Hermann
This plane features textured props, animated passenger door and
airstairs, and steerable nose gear. It is complete with moving landing gear, flaps, ailerons, elevators, and rudder. It also features night light textures with switchable landig lights and realistic engine start.
NOTE: Many other classic airliners can be downloaded free from Tom Gibson's Classic Airliner WEB site at - http://members.aol.com/TGFltsim/
Installation in FS2002:
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Copy the extracted folder to the \FS2002\aircraft directory using WinZip or similar program making sure the paths option is turned on.
If you are using WinNT/2000/XP, you may have to "repair" the MDL file before you can use it (you'll get an error when you try to load them into FS). The file is mdrepair.zip at SurClaro.
Panel:
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I recommend Tom Gibson's DC-6 IFR panel for flying this plane realistically.
The DC-6 IFR panel can be downloaded from the Classic Airliner Page;
http://members.aol.com/TGFltsim/panels.htm. You will need to change
the panel.cfg file; instructions are in the panel.cfg file.
Sound:
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Sound files by Mike Hambly, Pegasus Aviation Design are already installed in the folder sound.
(Originally developed for FSW95 & FS98 and Lancaster Bomber, which was equipped with engines Rolls-Royce Merlin as well, but it also runs with FS2002)
Visit his website at: http://www.flightsimnetwork.com/pegav/
OPENING DOOR
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The passenger door will open and airstairs will roll up to the door when you
press the / key (spoiler-key). Press the / key again to close the door for flight. The latest DC-6 panel (v5 or later) from Tom Gibson will do this automatically.
STEERABLE NOSE GEAR
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The nose gear will rotate if you move your yoke or joystick (assuming you
have autocoordination ON).
REALISTIC ENGINE START
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To start the engines realistically and individually, do this:
1. Go to spot view (SSSW) or look back at your engines
(3 on the numeric keypad with NumLock on).
2. Press Ctrl-Shift F1 to change mixtures to Idle Cutoff.
3. Press E3 to select engine #3.
4. Press M and then = (on the main keyboard); hold down the = key.
5. Wait for 6 prop blades to pass by.
6. Let go of the = key and press Ctrl-Shift F4 (mixture to Full Rich);
engine 3 will start.
7. Press E4 to select engine #4.
8. Repeat steps 4-6 to start engine #4.
9. Repeat steps 3-6 to start engines 2 and 1 (E2 and E1).
10. Normal start sequence is 3-4-2-1.
Copyright:
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These data in no matter what shape are for private use only and therefore must not be sold either as single items or as parts of an FS-collection. All elements put togehter are Freeware!
Note:
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Naturally, nobody can guarantee that these data will function properly and that no problems will occur along with installation and usage. We ourselves have no problems at all running this aircraft on our system.
Our FS-models are certified as authentic-VIRTUAL-aircrafts when their originals are or were present in the real Aviation's world rectified by photographs or other documents. The main evidence is the registration number of the aircraft. In case we have expressive pictured documents, comparisons of the originals and the FS-models are made with regard to equalness and differences.
In case an FS-model differs significantly from the original, it will not gain a certificate.
In case precise data about the flights of this certificated plane's original are available, those are provided thereafter:
TCA - Trans Canada Airlines (Canada)
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DC-4M-2 fleet of Trans Canada Airlines
Registration Aircraft Type c/n Origin Fate/Remarks
CF-TFA DC-4M-2 125 to XA-NUM
CF-TFB DC-4M-2 126 to XA-NUU
CF-TFC DC-4M-2 127 b/u Malton
CF-TFD DC-4M-2 128 w/o 09dec1956 Mt.Slesse,Hope,BC
CF-TFE DC-4M-2 129 to YV-C-LBU
CF-TFF DC-4M-2 130 to N7866C
CF-TFG DC-4M-2 131 to XA-NUW
CF-TFH DC-4M-2 132 to XA-NUR
CF-TFI DC-4M-2 133 to XA-NUV
CF-TFJ DC-4M-2 134 b/u Miami
CF-TFK DC-4M-2 135 b/u Baginton (Keegan Avn)
CF-TFL DC-4M-2 136 to N8722R
CF-TFM DC-4M-2 137 to Overseas Avn
CF-TFN DC-4M-2 138 b/u Panshanger,UK (Keegan Avn)
CF-TFO DC-4M-2 139 b/u Baginton (Keegan Avn)
CF-TFP DC-4M-2 140 to World Wide AW
CF-TFQ DC-4M-2 141 b/u Miami
CF-TFR DC-4M-2 142 to World Wide AW
CF-TFS DC-4M-2 143 to World Wide AW
CF-TFT DC-4M-2 144 b/u Baginton (Keegan Avn)
CF-TFU Canadair C-4-1 147 ex CF-CPI to YV-C-LBV
CF-TFV Canadair C-4-1 149 ex CF-CPJ to YV-C-LBT
CF-TFW Canadair C-4-1 150 ex CF-CPP w/o 08apr1954 over
Moose Jaw (mid-air Harvard)
Source:
AeroTransport Data Bank
http://aerotransport.free.fr/index.html
b/u = broken up
u/u = unused, aircraft owned but operated on behalf of third party
w/o = written off
To the Plane: DC-4-M (C54-GM) North Star, Canadair CL-4 Argonaut
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Throughout 1944, design work on the DC-4M, as the new transport was designated, gathered speed, with most activity taking place at the TCA engineering facilities at Winnipeg and Dorval. At Cartierville, Canadair was gearing up to produce a reduced Canadian requirement of 44 aircraft: 24 for the RCAF and 20 for TCA. The chosen design was basically a DC-4 airframe with some DC-6 components and British Rolls-Royce Merlin engines.
The major difference between the RCAF and TCA aircraft lay in cabin pressurization. While TCA regarded pressurization as essential for high altitude trans-Atlantic operations, the RCAF felt that its operations did not merit the expense of pressurization. The RCAF version, designated C-54GM, was to be unpressurized and consist mainly of Douglas C-54 Skymaster parts. TCA aircraft, designated DC-4-M2, were to be pressurized and have a Douglas DC-4 empennage, rear fuselage, flaps and wing tips; C-54 wing centre and outer wing panel; a DC-6 fuselage shortened by 2 metres (80 in.), and a DC-6 nose section and landing gear. To put Canadair to work as quickly as possible and avoid impending layoffs, the first six aircraft on the line were to be C-54GMs with fuselages selected from the C-54 fuselages Ben Franklin, president of Canadair, had acquired from Douglas' Chicago plant.
Though initially destined for the RCAF, the first six aircraft were allotted temporarily to TCA. The airline modified their aft cargo doors for passenger use and installed a DC-6 landing gear to permit a gross weight increase of 2,000 kg (5,000 lb.). TCA designated them DC-4-M1s and operated them until the first of its pressurized DC-4-M2s became available, whereupon they were returned to the RCAF.
The prototype C54-GM made its maiden flight on July 15, 1946, shortly after Ben Franklin had suggested the name North Star, as a tribute to Polaris, friend of the traveller. One problem surfaced immediately: engine noise from the unmuffled exhaust stacks vented straight against the fuselage was too loud for passenger comfort. After his first North Star flight, Franklin's successor as president of Canadair, H. Oliver West, gave his engineers two weeks to come up with an answer. It was six long years before TCA and British Overseas Airways engineers each produced quieter cross-over exhaust systems but neither solved the problem completely.
The first DC-4-M1 was delivered to TCA on November 16, 1946 and went into trans-Atlantic service on April 15, 1947. There were teething problems, but TCA established an unparalleled reputation for speed and dependability combined with high utilization. In the first 58 days of operation it completed 58 Atlantic round trips. Before the end of 1947, the six M1s were making 14 round trips a week on the route, and during the year, they set three world records between Canada and the British Isles.
The first RCAF aircraft was delivered to 426 Squadron on September 12, 1947; the last flight by an RCAF North Star was on December 8, 1965. In the intervening 18 years, the North Star established a remarkable RCAF safety record by flying 310 million km (193 million mi.) without a fatality. RCAF operations took North Stars to every part of the globe; to the Korean War; support of United Nations activities in the Congo, Cyprus, Indo-China, the Middle East and Yemen, and on mercy operations in Jamaica, Italy and Chile.
The North Star flew on the Berlin Airlift in 1948 and reached its finest hour with the Korean Airlift of 1950-52. With a terminal point at the Montreal International Airport, aircraft of No. 426 Squadron staged through Tacoma, Washington to Tokyo. Japan carrying men and supplies for the Korean conflict. They flew 599 round trips over the Pacific route and delivered 7,000,000 pounds of cargo and 13,000 personnel both ways. This amounted to 6,000,000 miles. Not an ounce of it was lost nor was there any loss of life. A record that is remarkable because the Tokyo run provided some of the 'hairiest' pilot traps on earth.
While many of the North Star's accomplishments have gone unsung, one of them did step into the limelight briefly in 1949 to set a speed record for the first non-stop flight from Vancouver to Halifax in 8 hours and 32 minutes, thereby establishing a trans-Canada record which stood for more than ten years. A North Star of No. 412 Squadron made the RCAF's first round-the-world flight to carry The Honourable Lester B. Pearson (later, the Prime Minister of Canada) to a conference of Commonwealth foreign ministers at Colombo, Ceylon, on 2 January to 8 February, 1950.
It became the fire truck of international brush-fires and answered the bell in Hungary, Egypt, Morocco, and Chile to attend man-made and natural disasters. One of the last great mercy missions of the North Star was in 1963 when five of them airlifted a complete hospital from Canada to earthquake-shattered Chile. North Stars were used as a regular vehicle on the Pisa-Congo run as well as shuttling through the Middle East points at El Arish and Cyprus where UN emergency forces serve. RCAF support of the UN operations in the Congo got underway on 18 July 1960 when 24,000 pounds of meat and 20,000 pounds of powdered milk were flown from Trenton to Leopoidville via TCA North Stars. TCA initiated 'Operation Mallard', an intensive 20-day airlift of troops, equipment and supplies to the Congo, following which two scheduled flights per week were established on a continuous basis between the UN staging unit at Pisa, Italy and Leopoidville.
The Canadair-Douglas licence agreement restricted the sale of North Stars to the United Kingdom and Canada, nevertheless, by the time production ended in 1950, Canadair had produced a total of 70 North Stars. In addition to the RCAF's 24 C-54GMs and TCA's 20 DC-4M-2s, Canadair delivered 22 C-4 Argonauts to British Overseas Airways Corporation, and four C-4-1s to Canadian Pacific Airlines. One C-5, a VIP transport version powered by Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engines, was supplied to the RCAF to replace a DC-4-M1 lost while in TCA service. Only one North Star survives; former RCAF C-54GM, No. 17515, belongs to the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa.
North Star Specifications
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(Canadair designations were CL-2 for the CL-54GM, DC-4-M1 and M2; CL-4 for the C-4 and CL-5 for the C-5)
Designition Production Delivered to
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Canadair CL-2 (DC-4M-1) North Star 6 TCA/RCAF
Canadair CL-2 (C-54GM) North Star 18 RCAF
Canadair CL-2 (DC-4M-2) North Star 20 TCA
Canadair CL-4 Argonaut 22 BOAC
Canadair CL-4-1 Argonaut 4 Canadian Pacific
Canadair CL-5 1 RCAF
Engins/Triebwerke (CL-2 and CL-4)
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Four Rolls-Royce Merlin 620, 622,624, in-line (each 1760 hp).
Three-or four-blade Hamilton Standard constant-speed reversible propeller
Engins/Triebwerke (C-5)
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Four Pratt & Whitney R-2800 "Double Wasp" radial (each 2100hp) Three-blade Hamilton Standard constant-speed reversible propeller
External Dimensions/Äußere Abmessungen
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Wing Span/Spannweite 35,8 m 117 ft. 6 in.
Length/Länge 28,6 m 93 ft. 7.5 in.
Height/Höhe 8,4 m 27 ft. 6.3 in.
C-5: 8,8 m 29 ft.
Internal Dimensions/Innenabmessungen
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Cabin Length/Kabinenlänge 14,17 m 46 ft. 6 in.
Max.Width/Max. Weite 2,64 m 8 ft. 8 in.
Max. Height/Max. Höhe 2.,3 m 7 ft. 8 in.
The History TCA - Trans Canada Airlines (Canada 1937 - 1965)
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A century ago, no Canadian had ever flown in an aeroplane. But aviation quickly became vital in a large country like Canada. In the 1920s and 1930s, a new sight appeared in Canada's skies, bush planes. Landing on lakes or ice instead of airfields, planes like the Beaver and the Norseman opened up the north. Sometimes they carried medical supplies, at other times, they flew in geologists or missionaries, but always they forged links that ended northern isolation. In the early 1930's Canada was one of the few industrialized countries without a national airline. In the meantime there were a number of regional bush airlines scattered across the country, and Canadian Pacific had part ownership in Canadian Airways, a group of regional airlines that served mining communities and transported mail.
However, there was no air service linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. R.B. Bennett's Conservative government was interested in launching an airline, but couldn't afford to do so during the Great Depression. It wasn't until 1935 when Mackenzie King came to power that the idea became a reality. In 1936 King created a Department of Transport and appointed Clarence Decatur Howe, the man who would be Air Canada's architect and most passionate defender, as minister. C.D. Howe intended for the airline to be under government control, but also initially wanted private enterprise to take a role in it. He proposed collaboration between CP Rail, CN Rail, and Canadian Airways. Although Canadian Airways badly wanted to operate the airline, political manoeuvring got in the way and it was shut out. Trans-Canada Air Lines was legislated into existence April 11, 1936, a subsidiary of CNR, which was in turn owned by the federal government.
Trans-Canada Air Lines started up with $5 million in seed money. It bought three airplanes from Canadian Airways, and hired a number of executives from U.S. airlines, such as United and American Airlines. TCA set forth on its inaugural flight July 30th, 1937. The first Trans-Canada Air Lines passenger flight across Canada took more than a day. C.D. Howe boarded a Lockheed aircraft in Montreal at dawn, and more than 17 hours later landed in Vancouver at dusk, after touching down in five cities across the country. TCA's first regular route was between Vancouver and Seattle, a flight that cost $14.20 round trip. Travel was quite a bit less comfortable back then. Pressurized cabins were a thing of the future, the planes were drafty and no oxygen was provided during flights, so passengers had to wear oxygen masks. All stewardesses were professional nurses.
TCA started up in 1937 with two second-hand Electras and a Stearman Model 4 mailplane. One more Lockheed 10A Electra was delivered in 1937 to Trans-Canada Airlines and was the first brand-new airplane. One of the Electras was used for pilot training. Many would-be airline pilots had only flown by day, by sight and by the seat of their pants. In cloud or fog they gauged the angle of the aircraft by the pressure of the seat against their bodies. Without visual reference points, a pilot may feel the aircraft is straight and level when it is really going into a turn or even a dive. It was in the Electra that many of TCA's first pilots learned instrument flying, night flying and radionavigation. And, for emergency training, the instructors did turn off one of the engines, often during take-off. When regular TCA passenger service began in 1939, the travellers, welcomed by the stewardess at the bottom of the ramp, were in expert hands.
In 1942, Canadian Pacific suggested to the government that Canadian Airways, now known as Canadian Pacific Airlines, merge with TCA. Mackenzie King refused and soon after declared TCA to be Canada's only international airline, as well as the only carrier allowed to provide transcontinental service in Canada. This was the basis of legislation that would regulate the aviation industry for the next forty years. It also permanently changed the tone of TCA's relationship with Canadian Pacific from competitive to combative.
The luxury, performance, and safety improvements, plus a bigger passenger cabin, were incorporated into the Douglas DC transport, culminating in 1936 with the appearance of the Douglas DC-3, one of aviation's all-time greats. The the remarkable DC-3 was the first transport that could operate at a profit without subsidies, became the backbone of commercial airliners around the world. TCA's first DC-3 was acquired by the airline in 1945, it flew for 38 years before being donated by Goodyear Canada.
The market for air travel increased after WWII. The the booming post-war economy made Canadians less afraid and better able to afford to fly. TCA expanded quickly over the next twenty years adding routes to the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. The company changed its name to Air Canada in 1965 to reflect the fact that it no longer flew solely within Canada.
