Cruver DC-7

[MichaelB]

Cool! ...my only Cruver DC-6s and -7s are in 1/432nd!
By the photo is that awesome Cruver catalog, they must have made many, many big DC-7s! ...Kinda looks like Atlantic Models workshop today!
Michael
...who WILL be at the MAC meeting in Houston on October 19th!

[grwebster]

After seeing the Cruver model United DC-3. I started wondering about the door on the starboard side. I checked period photos and the United DC-3 with that livery did have a entry door on that side.

Some 1930s period photos show starboard entry and I have seen others of period American AA that also have the starboard entry- and just to confuse the matter further-elsewhere there is a photo of an early United DC-3 with a food service van on the port side and passengers getting on on the starbard side. Food service guys aren't going to carry stuff around the tail so there must have been a door/access on the port side as well.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kemon01/9478346769/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kemon01/9481139064/
http://www.google.fr/imgres?q=United+DC ... :100,i:301

A 1940s photo appears to have port entry or is it just an access door. No curved 'United' above this door as there is on the other side- http://www.airliners.net/photo/United-A ... H/0137434/

My 3-43 Cruver C-47 has one on the port side. I can't tell from my photo if it also had one on the other side. Perhaps there was an earlier ID? The later Korean war edition has the large port cargo/entry door.

Was the Cruver United DC-3 issued with those antennas and DF that are on the Cruver ID?
Bryan? Dan?

Most all aircraft have passenger entry doors today on port side{ and other access doors on the starboard side}.

Could some one look and see if there was one on the other side as well or was the United one an earlier model. Bryan? Dan?

[MichaelB]

UAL was one of the early DC-3 customers that had right side doors on their DC-3s; so did AA. TWA and EAL had left side doors. However, ALL DSTs had right side doors.
The large C-47 cargo door was only on the left side on all variants.
Many, perhaps most, early airliners had right side doors: Stinson trimotors, Ford Tri Motor, Fokkers.
AA also requested...and got...right side doors on the Convair 240s. Western was the only Convair customer that requested...and got...aft ventral stairs on their CV-240. All the rest were left side.
The story is that CR Smith didn't want to mix passenger loading with baggage loading; the DC-3 cargo doors are on the left side on all variants.
After that everything was solidly on the left side.